One of my gryphons, drawn with chalks (i.e. oil pastels) and ink. (Used with the publisher's permission) See below Click on the image to go to the Robert Denethon Amazon page Also, click here to get the first book in the Gryphonomicon Histories Series, a Feather on the Breath of Ellulianaen, for free from Smashwords

Gríffon.
n.s. [This should rather be written gryfon, or gryphon, gryps, γρὺψ;
but it is generally written griffon.] A fabled animal, said to be
generated between the lion and eagle, and to have the head and paws
of the lion, and the wings of the eagle.

Of
all bearing among these winged creatures, the griffin is the most
ancient.

Peacham
on Blazoning.

Aristeus,
a poet of Proconesus, affirmed, that near the one-eyed nations
griffins defended the mines of gold.

Brown.

(The
Dictionary Entry for griffon in Johnson’s Dictionary of the English
Language, 1755)

In
the Graeco-Roman tradition gryphon is a four-footed animal with the
wings, feathers, foretalons, head and beak of an eagle and the
hind-quarters, body and tail of a lion. Graeco-Roman gryphons also
have ears like a lion’s ears, although perhaps a little larger, and
higher - sometimes as long as a horse’s ears.

In
Graeco-Roman art and literature gryphons were the beasts that pulled
the chariots of the gods and the Titans. According to legend (or history?) they could be found in the
country of Arimaspea or Hyperborea, both of which were located to the
north of the Black Sea. Thrones, as well, were often depicted as being carried by gryphons or other winged creatures.

The
Scythians, a people reputed to be barbarians who actually lived in
the country to the north of the Black Sea, are actually known to have
tattooed pictures of gryphons on their bodies. And their tattooed
gryphons have no wings, and they bear a large frill at the back of
the neck - in fact they resemble modern scientific estimates of what the dinosaur Protoceratops
might have looked like - the fossils of which litter the ground in
the mountains. This has led to one scholar, Adrienne Mayor,
suggesting that the Scythians based their traditions about gryphons
on the fossils.

But,
who really knows? Perhaps there really were gryphons living to the
north of the black sea. For many years people thought the ancient
fish, the Coelacanth, was extinct, but in 1938 living examples of this fish
were found. Perhaps even today there are gryphons living in some
distant part of Turkey...

It
has been suggested that the word, gryphon, is very ancient, for it is
apparently cognate with words in almost every tongue in the world –
in Akkadian, Kuribu , in Hebrew, Kerubim, in Assyrian,
Kerup, in Persian, Griffen, in German, Greif, in
English, griffon, and the words grasp, grab, and grip are
probably related too; even in American Indian, a geographically
isolated language, at a stretch, Caribou,
a Caribou being an animal that claws at (grips?) the snow.

One
Greek idea of an Arimaspian riding a gryphon - or is it a hippogriff?
The offspring of a gryphon and a horse was considered so unlikely,
since horses and gryphons are the worst of enemies, that the
hippogriff became a byword for an impossibilty in Latin.Krater neck griffin Antikensammlung Berlin 1984.42

Source
Texts about Gryphons, translated and annotated.

Gryphons
and Arimaspeans in the North.

Here
I have collected the extant source texts that mention gryphons, from
the ancient Graeco-Roman world, including a few of the passages
concerning the Arimaspeans, Hyperboreans and Scythians who lived to
the north of the Black Sea, who fought the gryphons for their gold,
according to legend (or ancient history; perhaps...?). I have also collected the medieval texts, below, and as much as I could find about the Near Eastern and Egyptian Art, including the words that (might) mean gryphon in Egyptian, Akkadian, and Hebrew.
In the Greek section I have tried to
provide some context for each passage in my glosses beforehand, and
also by taking a larger ‘chunk’ of the text than in some other
online sources, and where I am able to retranslate the passage I have
done so (if you wish to use my translations elsewhere, or any of the
content or glosses, I would love you to, but please acknowledge my
work and include a reasonably visible link to this site.)

Where
possible I have used public domain sources that are freely available
on the internet, so that anyone who is reading this may easily do
further research on their own.

The
Greek texts are mostly taken from Perseus Tufts, an absolutely
excellent resource for ancient Latin and Greek source texts. I have
borrowed some Latin translations from other sources but the
translations of the Greek texts are all mine - and any suggestions
for improvements, criticisms or corrections of my more-than-likely
imperfect efforts would be most welcome!

The
Few Extant Fragments of The Arimaspea.

The
earliest piece of Greek literature that mentioned gryphons was a
travelogue/history written in the form of an epic poem called “The
Arimaspea,” written by a poet called Aristeas in the 7th century
B.C.; though in latter centuries the identity of the author of “The
Arimaspea” was disputed by Greek scholars. Nonetheless the greatest
Greek historian of all, Herodotus, accepted Aristeas’ authorship,
although he disputes some details of Aristeas’ account.

Unfortunately,
most of “The Arimaspea” has been lost, but a few fragments
remain, embedded in other extant works - none of these fragments,
unfortunately, mention gryphons. Nonetheless, there are some facts we
can glean about the Greek view of the early Scythians from these
fragments when we combine them with what later writers say about
gryphons in “The Arimaspea.”

On
one point in particular Herodotus expresses doubt about Aristeas -
there are other monsters than gryphons mentioned in “The
Arimaspea”; Aristeas mentions the one-eyed men of Arimaspea,
‘andras monophthalmous’ - and Herodotus doubts that there
could possibly be men with one eye who are in all other respects the
same as other men. But Herodotus seems to accept the existence of
gryphons without question, and he accepts the gist of Aristeas’
account, that in the north live the Issedonians, and to the north of
the Issedonians live the Arimaspeans, and the ‘gold-hoarding’
gryphons live to the north of them.

Odysseus
tied to the mast of his ship - the sirens are troubling him. (These
are not gryphons! ) From a vase in the British Museum. The
illustration is included to show the kind of boat, πλοιον,
‘ploion’ in Greek, that was used to cross the storm-wracked black
sea.Odysseus Sirens BM E440 n2 - source Wikimedia

According
to Adrienne Mayor, in “The First Fossil Hunters,” the Arimaspeans
were probably Scythian nomads living to the north of the Black Sea,
and the first extant fragment may bear this out. I tried to render
the style of Aristeas, which is strangely distant, descriptive, yet
peculiarly disconnected.

This
passage, which appears to report the experience of sailors on an
ocean, may well be referring to those sailors who travel across the
Black Sea, notorious even today for its terrible storms and violent
weather. Indeed, in contemporary times there were terrible storms on
the Black Sea in November of 2007 and January 2008; one of the
January storms even sank an oil tanker.

In
Ancient Greece the Black Sea was called, Axenon, ‘Inhospitable,’
according to Strabo, in a passage quoted further below.

The
‘floating lily’ or perhaps, ‘boat-flower’ is a rather
striking image, and implies the fragility of the boat.

This
passage actually comes from Longinus’ ‘On the Sublime’, an
instruction book on writing, and he uses Aristeas’ fragment as an
example of bad, undramatic writing, comparing it disfavourably to a
passage about a sea voyage in Homer; and the Homeric passage is
undeniably better, in that sense.

Of
the other extant passages, the following four individual lines appear
to refer to the Arimaspeans, the ‘one-eyed men.’ Aristeas makes
them not only shaggy, but gives them the quality of graceful brows
above their single eye as well, a rather strange, descriptive
opposition, that to me both makes them more real and accentuates
their alienness.

These
are shaggy ones, all sturdy men.

Χαιτῃσιν
λάσιοι, πάντων στιβαρώτατοι ἀνδρῶν

Wealthy
horsemen, with many sheep, many oxen.

ἀφνειοὺς
ἴπποισι, πολύρρηνας, πολυβούτας.

In
the brow above his single eye each of them bears grace.

ὀφθαλμὸν
δ᾽ ἒν᾽ ἒκαστος ἒκει χαρίεντι μετωπῳ.

But
a man gazes ahead, graceful his brow

ἀλλ᾽
ἀνδρὸς θείοιο κάρη χαρίεν τε μέτωπον

According
to Herodotus, Aristeas did not travel any further north than
Issedonia. This is Aristeas’ surviving fragment that describes the
Issedonians:

The
Issedonians’ graceful long hair comes to a point

Ίσσηδοὶ
χαίτῃσιν ἀγαλλόμενοι ταναῇσι

The
word ταναῇσι, meaning ‘a point’, is also used of arrows.
The Scythians apparently had long, blond or red, hair, and may have
also been the ancestors of the Picts, i.e. the Scottish tribes.

And
there is one more fragment, a fuller description of the Arimaspeans.
‘Rich horsemen,’ in the quote below, means literally something
like ‘rich, ones with horses’, i.e. meaning both horse-owners and
men who ride horses.

And
after these men are those above them sharing their border

From
the north*, many there are, faithful, extremely strong,

rich
horsemen, sheep owners, with many oxen

καί
σφεας ἀνθροπους εἲναι καθυπερθεν
ὀμοὐρους

πρὸς
Βορέω, πολλούς τε καὶ ἐσθλοὺς κάρτα
μαχητάς,

ἀφνειοὺς
ΐπποισι, πολυρρηνας, πολθβουτας.

Note
- apart from the section above attributed to Perseus Tufts, the Greek
text for these sections comes from A Fragment of the Arimaspea CM
Bowra, http://www.jstor.org/stable/636961,
attributed fully in
the ‘Webliography’. This essay was also very helpful in making my
translations.

Aeschylus
was a famous Greek playwright of the fifth and sixth century BC,
writing perhaps a generation before Herodotus the historian, whom we
will look at next. Clearly Aeschylus the playwright’s geography is
not as reliable as Herodotus the historian’s, for he places
Ethiopia near Arimaspia. (Ethiopia is in Africa, southwest of Greece;
whereas Arimaspia, if it is actually north of the Black Sea, is to
the north-east.) Nevertheless Aeschylus clearly knows that the
gryphons lived in ‘gold-drenched lands’, Pluto’s ‘flowing
pores’ might mean rivers of sand, or so others have translated it -
or it might be a sort of pun, because Ploutwnos
might also mean plentiful, giving riches. In this passage it almost
sounds as the gryphons were
the
mounts of the Arimaspians, which is a possible interpretation.

There
is another passage in Aeschylus that refers to gryphons, or a
gryphon. It also occurs in the same play, Prometheus Bound.

To
give some background: Prometheus is a Titan, the original rulers of
the Cosmos. Zeus and the younger gods have usurped his power, and
Prometheus is chained up and condemned to have his liver eaten out
every day by an eagle. This is the end of one of the scenes -
Oceanus, another Titan, the ruler of the distant seas, has come to
meet Prometheus, and Prometheus is urging him to leave.

OCEANUS:

Clearly
you are trying to tell me I should return home

PROMETHEUS:

Lest
this dirge of mine thrust you in front of the path of the wrath...

This
isn’t the only time that gryphons are depicted as the animals that
pull the chariots of the gods in Greek myth, or indeed, in the
mythology or religious iconology of certain near-Eastern countries as
well. Apollo is depicted in Greek literature and painting as riding
in a chariot pulled by gryphons, Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance,
is depicted as riding on a chariot pulled by gryphons, and the
goddess Artemis wears a helmet with a sphinx depicted in the middle
and gryphons on the sides.

The
vision of the prophet Ezekiel, in the Hebrew scriptures, seems to
indicate that the God of Israel Himself also rides in a kind of
chariot, in this case pulled by a cherub - not the nineteenth
century cute baby-angel variety, but a six-winged creature with the
faces of a bull, a man, an eagle and a lion - a kind of
hyper-gryphon, perhaps.

Indeed,
it has often been suggested that the word Cherubim in
the Hebrew Scriptures has a shared etymology with the Greek word
gryps - i.e. gryphon -
more about this later.

Herodotus’
Assessment of The Arimaspea’s Account of Gryphons.

Herodotus
lived in the fifth century B.C. Scholars have often said that he was
the first true historian, for he tried to assess his source materials
in terms of accuracy and reliability and organised his material in a
logical form2.
Subsequent historians modelled their histories on Herodotus’
writing, such as Thucidydes, Xenophon, Arrian, Josephus, and the
writer of Luke's gospel.

Herodotus
always he mentions his sources and weighs their veracity. Here is
what he says about the Arimaspians and gryphons:

But
in the north of Europe there is by far the most gold, this much I can
reveal: but how the gold comes to be there, I do not know with any
certainty. But it is said that one-eyed men called Arimaspians steal
it from gryphons. But this I do not trust: that one-eyed men could
be born who have a nature that is otherwise the same as other men!
Nevertheless the most distant habitations - enclosing the other
places and surrounding them completely - have the greater and rarer
things, I expect.

And
here is the passage telling of “The Arimaspea,” and the poet
Aristeas.

But
Aristeas son of Kaustrobios, a Proconnesian man, creating an epic,
claimed that, Phoibos-possessed, he went as far as Issedone, but
beyond the Issedones were the Arimaspians, men with one eye, but
beyond them were the gold-hoarding gryphons, and beyond them the
Hyperborean lands, reaching right to the sea. But really all these
except the Hyperboreans, (and first the Arimaspeans), they were
always being put to by the neighbouring countries, and underneath
with the Arimaspeans were thrusting the Issedonians out of the
country, the Scythians by the Issedonians, but the Cimmerians lived
by the southern sea under the Scythians being pressed tightly and
pushed out of the country. But all this disagrees with what the
account of the country of the Scythians.

Here
Herodotus sounds a little sceptical - but considering the barbaric
reputation of Scythians, perhaps he is less sceptical about Aristeus’
account than about what the Scythians are
saying - Scythians were said to eat human flesh, and were accounted
as a barbaric and uncultured people, an opinion that survived even
into the first century AD, which the apostle Paul seems to be
referring to in Colossians 3:11, ‘Here there is no Greek nor Jew,
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but
Christ is all and in all’3.

A
slightly cryptic part of Herodotus’ quotation is the word
φοιβόλαμπτος phoibolamptos which I
have translated as ‘Phoibos-possessed.’ Does it mean that a dream
or a vision or some other sort of possession of him by the god
Phoibos set Aristeas on his journey and kept him on it? Or does it
mean that the entire journeywas
conducted in a vision of some sort? Both are possible, for there are
wild accounts of people ‘astral travelling’ in Classical Greece,
and sometimes they report their visions as fact.
Without having access to the original it is very hard to surmise what
φοιβόλαμπτος might mean.

Of
course this causes a problem for a modern person interested in facts
- was Aristeas telling a story we might regard as true? Did Aristeas,
in saying he was Phoibos-possessed, merely mean to suggest
that he had travelled to Scythia whilst in fact
it had all happened in some sort of vision? Perhaps Herodotus
considers this possibility; I wonder if, in the next passage, he is
suggesting that if Aristeas had dreamed or invented the
whole thing he would hardly need to make the distinction between
going as far as Issedone, and not all the way to where the
Arimaspians and the gryphons dwelled?

But
this land, concerning which this work has begun to speak; no one can
know with any certainty what lies north of it; for I have been able
to learn of no reputable scholar who claims to have witnessed it: for
not even Aristeus, who, remember, in the previous passage, wrote, “I
did not go further than the Issedones in these, my poetic
utterances;” he said, ‘reaching,’ but about what lies to he
north he said, ‘heard,’ stating that Issedone was what he was
actually talking about. But everything that can be said with any
precision about the more distant lands that we began to hear about,
shall be told.

But
on the one hand, knowing this, that the Issedonians come down from
the north and they say there are one-eyed men and gold-guarding
gryphons living there; but from the Scythians we have received this:
that the other name the Scythians call themselves is Arimaspians. For
Arima means Scythian, and Spia
means ‘Eye.’

Stone
statues of gryphons and sphinxes were fixtures in a house, and copper
gryphon heads in a temple, in the following passages:

For
he had in the city of the Borysthenites a large, expensive house,
around a courtyard, and what little memory of the front of it I have,
there were all around it stone sphinxes and upright gryphons; into
this God hurled a missile. It was all completely burned down, not one
thing was left standing, because of inferior workmanship when it was
made.

But
the Samians took a tenth of their profits out of the balance and made
a copper Argolic cauldron out of it: around it were gryphon heads
projecting from it. And this temple they dedicated to Hera, putting
upon it three copper Colossus’s, each seven cubits long, propped up
on their knees.

Ktesias’
Account of Gryphons, as Reported in Photios' Bibliotheca or
Myrobiblion 72, ινδικα4

Here
is a wonderful description of gryphons from Photios, an 8th century
AD author, in his ‘Bibliotheca or Myrobiblion’, possibly the
first book review in history. Photios summarises a vast number of
books, and this passage is from Photios’ summary of the books of
Ktesias (sometimes spelled Ctesias), another lost author who was
writing in the 5th century BC. My source for the Greek was a scan of
a nineteenth century book, and I’ve done my best to transcribe the
Greek correctly, but I’m pretty sure a few words are wrong.
Nonetheless, it seems to make sense.

In
all these texts gryphons are accounted to be a very real danger when
one is seeking gold.

There
is much gold in Indica (India) also, not found much in rivers, except
in the Pactolo5
river, but in the mountains there is a very great amount. In these,
gryphons live; four footed birds, as big as a fully-grown wolf; legs
and claws resembling a lion's; and otherwise their body feathers are
very red, but the others, peacock-coloured6.
But consider this: there is much gold in this district, but it is
hard to come by because of these (creatures).

Here
is Strabo the first century scholar (his Geography was finished
during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius) talking about the
area surrounding the Black Sea and the great Greek poet Homer’s
legendary take on the area, but he doesn’t mention gryphons. He
does mention the Scythians however and the old and new names the
Greeks had for the Black Sea. Strabo also mentions the
stormy winters. And the fact that the Scythians were apparently not
very welcoming towards Greeks; or perhaps they were, for when
they saw a Greek coming, according to Strabo they thought, ‘here
comes dinner.’ ‘Scythian’ became a term in Greek meaning
‘Barbarian.’

But
(in Homer) the Scythians are not remembered, but instead he makes up
these noble Hippemolgans, and Galactophagi, and Abii - but as for
those Paphlagonians in the interior - his reports come from
questioning those who approached the areas on foot, but of
sea-journeys he is ignorant, and that’s reasonable, for at that
time that ocean was unfit for sailing. They called it Axenon
(Inhospitable) because of the terrible stormy winters and the
savageness of the peoples living around it; worst were the Scythians,
sacrificing strangers, eating their flesh and using their skulls as
drinking-cups. But lately it was called Euxinon, (Welcoming) when the
Ionians peopled the seaboard with cities.

In
‘The Natural History’ Pliny attempted to summarise the entire
body of ancient knowledge at the time he wrote, sometime in the 1st
century A.D.; he wrote in Latin, a language I cannot translate
reliably. So this is a quote from the translation of John Bostock and
H.T.Riley of 1855.

CHAP.
2.—THE WONDERFUL FORMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

We
have already stated, that there are certain tribes of the Scythians,
and, indeed, many other nations, which feed upon human flesh.8
This fact itself might, perhaps, appear incredible, did we not
recollect, that in the very centre of the earth, in Italy and Sicily,
nations formerly existed with these monstrous propensities, the
Cyclopes,2 and the Læstrygones, for example; and that, very
recently, on the other side of the Alps, it was the custom to offer
human sacrifices, after the manner of those nations;3 and the
difference is but small between sacrificing human beings and eating
them.9

In
the vicinity also of those who dwell in the northern re- gions, and
not far from the spot from which the north wind arises, and the place
which is called its cave,10
and is known by the name of Geskleithron, the Arimaspi are said to
exist, whom I have previously mentioned,11
a nation remarkable for having but one eye, and that placed in the
middle of the forehead. This race is said to carry on a perpetual
warfare with the Griffins, a kind of monster, with wings, as they are
commonly12
represented, for the gold which they dig out of the mines, and which
these wild beasts retain and keep watch over with a singular degree
of cupidity, while the Arimaspi are equally desirous to get
possession of it.13Many
authors have stated to this effect, among the most illustrious of
whom are Herodotus and Aristeas of Proconnesus.14

Beyond
the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there is a country called Abarimon,
situate in a certain great valley of Mount Imaus,15
the inhabitants of which are a savage race, whose feet are turned
backwards,16relatively
to their legs: they possess wonderful velocity, and wander about
indiscriminately with the wild beasts. We learn from Bæton, whose
duty it was to take the measurements of the routes of Alexander the
Great, that this people cannot breathe in any climate except their
own, for which reason it is impossible to take them before any of the
neighbouring kings; nor could any of them be brought before Alexander
himself.

The
Anthropophagi, whom we have previously mentioned as dwelling ten
days' journey beyond the Borysthenes, according to the account of
Isigonus of Nicæa, were in the habit of drinking out of human
skulls,17
and placing the scalps, with the hair attached, upon their breasts,
like so many napkins. The same author relates, that there is, in
Albania, a certain race of men, whose eyes are of a sea-green colour,
and who have white hair from their earliest childhood,14 and that
these people see better in the night than in the day. He states also
that the Sauromatæ, who dwell ten days' journey beyond the
Borysthenes, only take food every other day.

Philostratus
was a follower of Apollonius, a Roman sage or itinerant sect-leader,
really, who purported to do miracles and magic and about whom
Philostratus recorded certain miracles, prophecies, and dream
fulfilments. Philostratus wrote down the following section about
gryphons in the part of the book that records Apollonius’ travels
in India.

My
version of the passage concerning the gryphons’ flight differs from
earlier translations - I think I have translated it correctly, and it
does seem to make more sense.

And
as I was saying, that, working with as many men as they can, they
themselves bring the rocks up to daylight. And the pygmies live
underground, but they sleep above the course of the Ganges’ where
they live, or so people say. But as to the umbrella-footed men or the
long-headed ones or the multitude of singing dogs that also live in
India, I will write about these things at another time.

But
concerning the gryphons that dig up the gold, they go to the rocks to
spark them by scratching, following the drops of gold, for the beasts
are able to quarry the stone using their bent beaks. For these beasts
that live in India are accounted sacred to the sun, yoked four
abreast to pull the glory of the sun, as many Indian writings say
(or, pictures show), and their strength is depicted as equal to that
of the lion, and they depict the greed of these winged creatures in
hoarding treasure, and the fact that they are also able to conquer
elephants and dragons. They are capable of flight but not a
great distance, only in small circles like birds’ flight, before
they have their own feathers that they get from their father, and the
membranes on their wings are woven in to the red18;
when they are being attacked they are flown to (by their father), who
encircles them, and lifts them out of the way. But the tiger is the
only one they cannot fight, because her swiftness is great;
she is a child of the wind.

And
the following section, in discussing supposed similarities between
Ethiopia and India, mentions gryphons and their propensity for
guarding gold, once more:

...but
cattle and wild beasts, such as you don’t find on the other side,
and giant men, not found in other lands; there are Pygmies in these
nations and howlers howling, ‘allo! allé!’19
and other wonders. But the gryphons of India and the Ethiopian
Murmeekas20,
though not alike in their form, are similar, for this reason: their
greed. For they guard gold in groups of two, singing of the golden
soil of the land with great fondness. But there is no wealth to be
had in this line of thought - I will return to the main point,
of the man (i.e. Apollonius...)

Here
is another author from the first to the second century - a Roman
author writing in Greek, a sort of travelogue of Greece. This is from
the passage describing the Parthenon, the great temple to Athena in
Athens.

As
many as those who are called in to sacrifice the eagles, all on
coming into Athena(‘s temple) are given (behold?) her birth, but at
the rear, Poseidon is quarrelling with Athena over the earth; and
this (statue) is made out of ivory21
(lit. “the glory of the elephant”) and gold. In the middle of her
helmet they have a sphinx - but about the sphinx you will be told,
indeed, further along I will elucidate - it is the Boethian one -
but borne on the two sides of the helmet are gryphons.

These
are the gryphons that Aristea of Proconnesios says fight for their
gold, or so they say, with the Arimaspeans north of Issedone. This
gold that the gryphons guard comes out of the ground, but the
Arimaspians are men with one eye from birth; and the gryphons are
beasts that look like lions, but have feathers and beak of an eagle.
Concerning gryphons, enough said.

At
the Prasiaian is a temple of Apollo - in there the Hyberboreans offer
their first fruits (i.e. of their gold-digging), so they say, but the
Hyperboreans hand them over to the Arimaspians, and the Arimaspians
to the Issedonians, from them to the Scythians to the Sinopians, but
in the end they are carried through Greek to Prasia, but in Athens
they are taken into Delon, but there the first fruits is hidden in
straw, but no one knows about it. But at Prasia there is a memorial
to Erusichthenus, who died coming out of Delos, after that sea
voyage.

In
this next section Pausanias seems to express some scepticism about
the gryphon having spots like a leopard! This may seem a little
humourous - because he certainly doesn’t doubt the existence of
gryphons - that is, we would find it humourous if we didn’t
believe that gryphons exist. It’s not funny at all.

But
it is also said that Niobe on mount Sipylo weeps aloud at the coming
of summer. But then again I have also heard that gryphons have spots
like the leopard, and that the Tritons utter sounds like a human
voice. But some also say they blow through a conch-shell which has
holes bored in it. But as much as they take pleasure in hearing
invented stories, they expand the marvel themselves, and so they
maltreat the truth, mixing it up together with lies. PAUSANIAS
Paus. 8.2.7

This
is a section from the Golden Ass, otherwise known as The
Metamorphoses, by Apuleius, perhaps the earliest surviving novel,
written about 150-180 AD. Apuleius’ fictional story is is written
from the point of view of a main character who goes to a town where
the people all practice magic. On seeing the wife of his master
transformed into a bird, he tries to do the magic himself to turn
himsefl into a bird and accidentally gets turned into an Ass. The
rest of the story comprises his adventures as he tries to find the
correct magic turn himself back into a human. Interestingly, St.
Augustine mocked this book mercilessly (perhaps because it was a
large part of Augustine’s pagan education, because he studied in
M'Daourouch in Algeria, Apuleius’ home town) Despite this,
apparently the form of his Confessions is modelled upon it. C.S.
Lewis’ book Till We Have Faces, one of his most excellent books, is
a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth, which is told in Apuleius’
Metamorphoses.

But
enough digressions - back to gryphons. The following section is from
Chapter Eleven, the final section of the story, and describes the
ceremonies in the temple of Isis where he is finally turned back into
a human. It is from the Loeb translation, available on Archive.org,
which is based on the version by William Adlington (1566) by Stephen
Gaselee.

When
morning came and that the solemnities were finished, I came forth
sanctified with twelve stoles and in a religious habit, whereof I am
not forbidden to speak, considering that many persons saw me at that
time. There I was commanded to stand upon a pulpit of wood which
stood in the middle of the temple, before the figure and remembrance
of the goddess; my vestment was of fine linen, covered and
embroidered with flowers ; I had a precious cope upon my shoulders,
hanging down behind me to the ground, whereon were beasts, wrought of
divers colours, as Indian dragons, and Hyperborean griffins, whom in
form of birds the other part of the world doth engender : the priests
commonly call such a habit an Olympian stole.

...An
expensive cloak hung down my back from my shoulders all the way down
to my heels. Moreover, from whichever direction you looked I was
conspicuously marked all round with varicolored animals: on one side
were Indian dragons and on the other Hyperborean gryphons which look
like winged birds and are produced in another world. Initiates call
this garment the Olympian stole.

Aspects
of Apuleius' Golden Ass: Volume III: the Isis Book. A Collection of
Original Papers, edited by W.H. Keulen, Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser,
from the essay by Ellen Finkelpearl p. 192

The
Metamorphoses is a novel, and a certain amount of poetic license is
doubtless intended. Nevertheless the idea that the gryphons are
produced in another world, the second translation, is rather
evocative, although I expect that in ancient times where people
didn’t really travel out of their own country much, there wasn’t
really much difference between another part of the world and
another world.

Aelian’s
Detailed Description of Gryphons and Gold Hunters

Aelian
was a writer in the second century A.D., a student of Pausanias,
actually, whose gryphon passage from ‘A Description of Greece’
was quoted earlier. Aelian’s ‘Of the Nature of Animals’ is an
extensive collection of anecdotes and facts about animals from the
second century. In book 1 he wrote this vivid description of the
habits and appearance of gryphons and the people who hunt for their
gold.

The
gryphon, I hear, of the creatures of India, is four-footed like a
lion, but he has extremely strong claws, and these are indeed
comparable with the lion’s: but he has feathers, apparently - and
of those the feathers of his spine are coloured black as a crow’s;
but the front are red, they say, these, at least; with wings that are
not that the same as either, but white. But Ktesias records that his
throat is adorned in feathers of a beautiful blue22.
But on his head he has the beak of an eagle that executes23
scratches, really terrible ones. His eyes, he says, they are aflame.
And they make their nests upon the mountains, and though the
fully-grown can’t be captured, the young are taken. And the
Bactrioi, who are neighbours of the Indians, say they are guarding
their gold on that place, and begin digging where there are signs of
it, and out of it they weave their nests, but any run-off the Indians
seize. But the Indians do not say they are guarding, as was said
beforehand: for gryphons do not want for gold and what they’re
saying, I expect that I believe. But upon the same subject, of them
being afraid of the heaps of gold being reached, they say that they
are afraid for their own young and fight for this reason. And knowing
this, both of them keep their strength ready for fighting other
creatures, but will not go against lions or elephants. But fearing
these beasts‘ strength the people of that place make ready by day
to get the gold, but at night they come: for they are more able to
escape the trap then. But that place, where the gryphons cry out and
where the gold is, is a desert, a place of terror. But in order to
get there you must go through the forests as I said beforehand, and
there are thousands of them, large, tall hunters. And they bring fur
sacks, and begin digging when they see it is a moonless night. For is
it not so if they escape the gryphons they get double the advantage:
on the one hand being saved and on the other hand of bringing home
their prize, and having ‘cleaned out’ they learn the wisdom of
the goldsmith in order to secure their own fortune without the hazard
of going out as I said beforehand: for if caught in the act, they are
killed. But in all they return to their houses and begin learning the
trade after about three or four years.

In an interesting aside;
in another passage Aelian mentions a flying pig:

The
successful artists with nimble fingers always portray the sphinx with
wings, when they sculpt them. But I hear that in Klazomenon there was
a winged pig, which was causing damage all over Klazomenon, at least
that's what Artemon said in 'Klazomenon, the Sights'. From then on it
was called 'Place of the Flying Pig', so it was named, and it was
celebrated! But if that turns out to be a myth, as I expect, I myself
am writing about animals and it would vex me not to include the
anecdote.24

Perhaps
this was the origin of the saying in English, “Pigs might fly.”

What
is rather interesting about this passage, of course, is that
while Aelian often puts a little aside in saying that an anecdote
might be myth when it seems to strain his credibility, but Aelian
doesn’t use this phrase in the passage about gryphons...

Nonnus’
Gryphons - from Dionysica book 48

Nonnus’
Dionysica is a strange, riotous, chaotic, baroque account of the life
of the Greek god of wine and revelry, Dionysius (Roman Bacchus),
written as a heroic ode in Homeric Greek, written in the fifth
century AD when Homer’s tongue was extremely archaic and the
Graeco-Roman world was firmly Christian. There is something desperate
and overblown about Nonnus’ writing as if he wants to be a pagan
when paganism is dying but can’t quite manage it wholeheartedly.
(To illustrate how bizarre it gets - it has women shooting missiles
from their breasts (!) Perhaps Nonnus was the Mike Myers of his days,
and Dionysica was the contemporary equivalent of the Austin Powers
movies...) Even stranger: Nonnus also wrote a theological paraphrase
of John’s gospel, also in Homeric Greek - scholars have often said
that he wrote that after he became a Christian, but really no
one knows anything about him beyond the fact that he wrote these two
works.

This
is a section where Artemis goes to ask Nemesis, the goddess of
vengeance, to avenge her honour, after her maid Aura mocks her as she
gets out of the river after bathing:

But
she took her plea to Nemesis: she found the girl in Tauron’s
highest clouds, saw her beside neighbour Kudros, having ended
Typhanius’ haughty, bragging threats. And self-turning wheels went
around the queen’s feet signifying that all torn-footed heroines go
on high into the light of her righteousness to punish those around
them, all-taming goddess, life constantly turning and moving around about
her! But on both sides flying hither and thither about her throne
horned avengers (lit. escapist-tearers), winged gryphons, with four
feet lightly quivering, flying bearers of the message-bringing gods.
And going out to the four quarters of the gods’ dominion, their
dwelling-places of the world, to men, who are not to be loosed, who
are bound fast, bridled to the bit, that is the meaning of the sign,
to be whipped for their badness, by her whose self-turning wheel
turns against heroic man.

Here
is a later section that mentions gryphons as well - when Nemesis is
hunting Aura down in order to avenge Artemis.

With
the same zeal the virgin Adresteia (i.e., Nemesis) went after her
intransigent enemy Aura, racing-gryphons yoked to her chariot; and
with fleet pattering feet through the air keenly went the two-seater,
and, holding fast to the race over the peaks of Sipulo, she landed in
front of the daughter of Tantalus, stony-eyed before her face, the
flying four-footed bent-beaks bound fast, bridled to the bit.

Adrienne
Mayor’s book “The First Fossil Hunters” is an outstanding piece
of detective work, and well worth reading if you are interested in
gryphons. In it she makes a very credible case for the stories of
gryphons in the area north of the Black Sea being an early example of
reasoning from fossil records - and she demonstrates convincingly that the Scythian gryphon tattoos resemble dinosaur skeletons of Protoceratops - indeed, as
artistic representations of gryphons get closer to this area, they more closely resemble the Protoceratops.

In fact, she is not the first person to suggest that Gryphon-related legends might be based upon fossils. In 1902 Henry Yule and Henri Cordier in a very extended footnote in "The Travels of Marco Polo" volume 2 suggested that legends of the Roc might based on fossils of the Aepyornis (Elephant-bird) a large flightless bird that inhabited Madagascar:

The Simurgh on the wall of church Samtavisi. A Simurgh is a kind of bird, in the mythology of Persia, Armenia, Turkey, and areas covered by the Byzantine Empire, perhaps the equivalent of the Roc or Rukh - this one certainly looks like a gryphon.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASimurgh.jpg

NOTE 5.－The fable of the RUKH was old and widely spread, like that of the Male and Female Islands, and, just as in that case, one accidental circumstance or another would give it a local habitation, now here now there. The Garuda of the Hindus, the Simurgh of the old Persians, the 'Angka of the Arabs, the Bar Yuchre of the Rabbinical legends, the Gryps of the Greeks, were probably all versions of the same original fable.

Bochart quotes a bitter Arabic proverb which says, "Good-Faith, the Ghul, and the Gryphon ('Angka) are three names of things that exist nowhere." And Mas'udi, after having said that whatever country he visited he always found that the people believed these monstrous creatures to exist in regions as remote as possible from their own, observes: "It is not that our reason absolutely rejects the possibility of the existence of the Nesnás (see vol. i. p. 206) or of the 'Angka, and other beings of that rare and wondrous order; for there is nothing in their existence incompatible with the Divine Power; but we decline to believe in them because their existence has not been manifested to us on any irrefragable authority."

The circumstance which for the time localized the Rukh in the direction of Madagascar was perhaps some rumour of the great fossil Aepyornis and its colossal eggs, found in that island. According to Geoffroy St. Hilaire, the Malagashes assert that the bird which laid those great eggs still exists, that it has an immense power of flight, and preys upon the greater quadrupeds. Indeed the continued existence of the bird has been alleged as late as 1861 and 1863!
On the great map of Fra Mauro (1459) near the extreme point of Africa which he calls Cavo de Diab, and which is suggestive of the Cape of Good Hope, but was really perhaps Cape Corrientes, there is a rubric inscribed with the following remarkable story: "About the year of Our Lord 1420 a ship or junk of India in crossing the Indian Sea was driven by way of the Islands of Men and Women beyond the Cape of Diab, and carried between the Green Islands and the Darkness in a westerly and south-westerly direction for 40 days, without seeing anything but sky and sea, during which time they made to the best of their judgment 2000 miles. The gale then ceasing they turned back, and were seventy days in getting to the aforesaid Cape Diab. The ship having touched on the coast to supply its wants, the mariners beheld there the egg of a certain bird called Chrocho, which egg was as big as a butt. And the bigness of the bird is such that between the extremities of the wings is said to be 60 paces. They say too that it carries away an elephant or any other great animal with the greatest ease, and does great injury to the inhabitants of the country, and is most rapid in its flight."

G.-St. Hilaire considered the Aepyornis to be of the Ostrich family; Prince C. Buonaparte classed it with the Inepti or Dodos; Duvernay of Valenciennes with aquatic birds! There was clearly therefore room for difference of opinion, and Professor Bianconi of Bologna, who has written much on the subject, concludes that it was most probably a bird of the vulture family. This would go far, he urges, to justify Polo's account of the Ruc as a bird of prey, though the story of it's lifting any large animal could have had no foundation, as the feet of the vulture kind are unfit for such efforts. Humboldt describes the habit of the condor of the Andes as that of worrying, wearying, and frightening its four-footed prey until it drops; sometimes the condor drives its victim over a precipice.

Bianconi concludes that on the same scale of proportion as the condor's, the great quills of the Aepyornis would be about 10 feet long, and the spread of the wings about 32 feet, whilst the height of the bird would be at least four times that of the condor. These are indeed little more than conjectures. And I must add that in Professor Owen's opinion there is no reasonable doubt that the Aepyornis was a bird allied to the Ostriches.

We gave, in the first edition of this work, a drawing of the great Aepyornis egg in the British Museum of its true size, as the nearest approach we could make to an illustration of the Rukh from nature. The actual contents of this egg will be about 2.35 gallons, which may be compared with Fra Mauro's anfora! Except in this matter of size, his story of the ship and the egg may be true.
A passage from Temple's Travels in Peru has been quoted as exhibiting exaggeration in the description of the condor surpassing anything that can be laid to Polo's charge here; but that is, in fact, only somewhat heavy banter directed against our traveller's own narrative. (See Travels in Various Parts of Peru, 1830, II. 414-417.)

Recently fossil bones have been found in New Zealand, which seem to bring us a step nearer to the realization of the Rukh. Dr. Haast discovered in a swamp at Glenmark in the province of Otago, along with remains of the Dinornis or Moa, some bones (femur, ungual phalanges, and rib) of a gigantic bird which he pronounces to be a bird of prey, apparently allied to the Harriers, and calls Harpagornis. He supposes it to have preyed upon the Moa, and as that fowl is calculated to have been 10 feet and upwards in height, we are not so very far from the elephant-devouring Rukh. (See Comptes Rendus, Ac. des Sciences 1872, p. 1782; and Ibis, October 1872, p. 433.) This discovery may possibly throw a new light on the traditions of the New Zealanders. For Professor Owen, in first describing the Dinornis in 1839, mentioned that the natives had a tradition that the bones belonged to a bird of the eagle kind. (See Eng. Cyc. Nat. Hist. sub. v. Dinornis.) And Sir Geo. Grey appears to have read a paper, 23rd October 1872,[4] which was the description by a Maori of the Hokiol, an extinct gigantic bird of prey of which that people have traditions come down from their ancestors, said to have been a black hawk of great size, as large as the Moa.

I have to thank Mr. Arthur Grote for a few words more on that most interesting subject, the discovery of a real fossil Ruc in New Zealand. He informs me (under date 4th December 1874) that Professor Owen is now working on the huge bones sent home by Dr. Haast, "and is convinced that they belonged to a bird of prey, probably (as Dr. Haast suggested) a Harrier, double the weight of the Moa, and quite capable therefore of preying on the young of that species. Indeed, he is disposed to attribute the extinction of the Harpagornis to that of the Moa, which was the only victim in the country which could supply it with a sufficiency of food."

One is tempted to add that if the Moa or Dinornis of New Zealand had its Harpagornis scourge, the still greater Aepyornis of Madagascar may have had a proportionate tyrant, whose bones (and quills ?) time may bring to light. And the description given by Sir Douglas Forsyth on page 542, of the action of the Golden Eagle of Kashgar in dealing with a wild boar, illustrates how such a bird as our imagined Harpagornis Aepyornithon might master the larger pachydermata, even the elephant himself, without having to treat him precisely as the Persian drawing at p. 415 represents.

Sindbad's adventures with the Rukh are too well known for quotation. A variety of stories of the same tenor hitherto unpublished, have been collected by M. Marcel Devic from an Arabic work of the 10th century on the "Marvels of Hind," by an author who professes only to repeat the narratives of merchants and mariners whom he had questioned. A specimen of these will be found under Note 6. The story takes a peculiar form in the Travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela. He heard that when ships were in danger of being lost in the stormy sea that led to China the sailors were wont to sew themselves up in hides, and so when cast upon the surface they were snatched up by great eagles called gryphons, which carried their supposed prey ashore, etc. It is curious that this very story occurs in a Latin poem stated to be at least as old as the beginning of the 13th century, which relates the romantic adventures of a certain Duke Ernest of Bavaria; whilst the story embodies more than one other adventure belonging to the History of Sindbad.[5] The Duke and his comrades, navigating in some unknown ramification of the Euxine, fall within the fatal attraction of the Magnet Mountain. Hurried by this augmenting force, their ship is described as crashing through the rotten forest of masts already drawn to their doom:－

When only the Duke and six others survive, the wisest of the party suggests the scheme which Rabbi Benjamin has related:－

－"Quaeramus tergora, et armis Vestiti prius, optatis volvamur in illis, Ut nos tollentes mentita cadavera Grifae Pullis objiciant, a queis facientibus armis Et cute dissutâ, nos, si volet, Ille Deorum Optimus eripiet."
Which scheme is successfully carried out. The wanderers then make a raft on which they embark on a river which plunges into a cavern in the heart of a mountain; and after a time they emerge in the country of Arimaspia inhabited by the Cyclopes; and so on. The Gryphon story also appears in the romance of Huon de Bordeaux, as well as in the tale called 'Hasan of el-Basrah' in Lane's Version of the Arabian Nights.

It is in the China Seas that Ibn Batuta beheld the Rukh, first like a mountain in the sea where no mountain should be, and then "when the sun rose," says he, "we saw the mountain aloft in the air, and the clear sky between it and the sea. We were in astonishment at this, and I observed that the sailors were weeping and bidding each other adieu, so I called out, 'What is the matter?' They replied, 'What we took for a mountain is "the Rukh." If it sees us, it will send us to destruction.' It was then some 10 miles from the junk. But God Almighty was gracious unto us, and sent us a fair wind, which turned us from the direction in which the Rukh was; so we did not see him well enough to take cognizance of his real shape." In this story we have evidently a case of abnormal refraction, causing an island to appear suspended in the air.[6]
The Archipelago was perhaps the legitimate habitat of the Rukh, before circumstances localised it in the direction of Madagascar. In the Indian Sea, says Kazwini, is a bird of size so vast that when it is dead men take the half of its bill and make a ship of it! And there too Pigafetta heard of this bird, under its Hindu name of Garuda, so big that it could fly away with an elephant.[7] Kazwini also says that the 'Angka carries off an elephant as a hawk flies off with a mouse; his flight is like the loud thunder. Whilom he dwelt near the haunts of men, and wrought them great mischief. But once on a time it had carried off a bride in her bridal array, and Hamd Allah, the Prophet of those days, invoked a curse upon the bird. Wherefore the Lord banished it to an inaccessible Island in the Encircling Ocean.

The Simurgh or 'Angka, dwelling behind veils of Light and Darkness on the inaccessible summits of Caucasus, is in Persian mysticism an emblem of the Almighty.

In Northern Siberia the people have a firm belief in the former existence of birds of colossal size, suggested apparently by the fossil bones of great pachyderms which are so abundant there. And the compressed sabre-like horns of Rhinoceros tichorinus are constantly called, even by Russian merchants, birds' claws. Some of the native tribes fancy the vaulted skull of the same rhinoceros to be the bird's head, and the leg-bones of other pachyderms to be its quills; and they relate that their forefathers used to fight wonderful battles with this bird. Erman ingeniously suggests that the Herodotean story of the Gryphons, from under which the Arimaspians drew their gold, grew out of the legends about these fossils.

I may add that the name of our rook in chess is taken from that of this same bird; though first perverted from (Sansk.) rath, a chariot.

Some Eastern authors make the Rukh an enormous beast instead of a bird. (See J.R.A.S. XIII. 64, and Elliot, II. 203.) A Spanish author of the 16th century seems to take the same view of the Gryphon, but he is prudently vague in describing it, which he does among the animals of Africa: "The Grifo which some call CAMELLO PARDAL ... is called by the Arabs Yfrit(!), and is made just in that fashion in which we see it painted in pictures." (Marmol, Descripcion General de Africa, Granada, 1573, I. f. 30.) The Zorafa is described as a different beast, which it certainly is!

[In a letter to Sir Henry Yule, dated 24th March 1887, Sir (then Dr.) John Kirk writes: "I was speaking with the present Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyed Barghash, about the great bird which the natives say exists, and in doing so I laughed at the idea. His Highness turned serious and said that indeed he believed it to be quite true that a great bird visited the Udoe country, and that it caused a great shadow to fall upon the country; he added that it let fall at times large rocks. Of course he did not pretend to know these things from his own experience, for he has never been inland, but he considered he had ample grounds to believe these stones from what he had been told of those who travelled. The Udoe country lies north of the River Wami opposite the island of Zanzibar and about two days going inland. The people are jealous of strangers and practise cannibalism in war. They are therefore little visited, and although near the coast we know little of them. The only members of their tribe I have known have been converted to Islam, and not disposed to say much of their native customs, being ashamed of them, while secretly still believing in them. The only thing I noticed was an idea that the tribe came originally from the West, from about Manyema; now the people of that part are cannibals, and cannibalism is almost unknown except among the Wadoe, nearer the east coast. It is also singular that the other story of a gigantic bird comes from near Manyema and that the whalebone that was passed off at Zanzibar as the wing of a bird, came, they said, from Tanganyika. As to rocks falling in East Africa, I think their idea might easily arise from the fall of meteoric stones."]

[M. Alfred Grandidier (Hist. de la Géog. de Madagascar, p. 31) thinks that the Rukh is but an image; it is a personification of water-spouts, cyclones, and typhoons.－H.C.]

NOTE 6.－Sir Thomas Brown says that if any man will say he desires before belief to behold such a creature as is the Rukh in Paulus Venetus, for his own part he will not be angry with his incredulity. But M. Pauthier is of more liberal belief; for he considers that, after all, the dimensions which Marco assigns to the wings and quills of the Rukh are not so extravagant that we should refuse to admit their possibility.

Ludolf will furnish him with corroborative evidence, that of Padre Bolivar, a Jesuit, as communicated to Thévenot; the assigned position will suit well enough with Marco's report: "The bird condor differs in size in different parts of the world. The greater species was seen by many of the Portuguese in their expedition against the Kingdoms of Sofala and Cuama and the Land of the Caffres from Monomotapa to the Kingdom of Angola and the Mountains of Teroa. In some countries I have myself seen the wing-feathers of that enormous fowl, although the bird itself I never beheld. The feather in question, as could be deduced from its form, was one of the middle ones, and it was 28 palms in length and three in breadth. The quill part, from the root to the extremity, was five palms in length, of the thickness of an average man's arm, and of extreme strength and hardness. [M. Alfred Grandidier (Hist. de la Géog. de Madagascar, p. 25) thinks that the quill part of this feather was one of the bamboo shoots formerly brought to Yemen to be used as water-jars and called there feathers of Rukh, the Arabs looking upon these bamboo shoots as the quill part of the feathers of the Rukh.－H.C.] The fibres of the feather were equal in length and closely fitted, so that they could scarcely be parted without some exertion of force; and they were jet black, whilst the quill part was white. Those who had seen the bird stated that it was bigger than the bulk of a couple of elephants, and that hitherto nobody had succeeded in killing one. It rises to the clouds with such extraordinary swiftness that it seems scarcely to stir its wings. In form it is like an eagle. But although its size and swiftness are so extraordinary, it has much trouble in procuring food, on account of the density of the forests with which all that region is clothed. Its own dwelling is in cold and desolate tracts such as the Mountains of Teroa, i.e. of the Moon; and in the valleys of that range it shows itself at certain periods. Its black feathers are held in very high estimation, and it is with the greatest difficulty that one can be got from the natives, for one such serves to fan ten people, and to keep off the terrible heat from them, as well as the wasps and flies" (Ludolf, Hist. Aethiop. Comment, p. 164.)

Abu Mahomed, of Spain, relates that a merchant arrived in Barbary who had lived long among the Chinese. He had with him the quill of a chick Rukh, and this held nine skins of water. He related the story of how he came by this,－a story nearly the same as one of Sindbad's about the Rukh's egg. (Bochart, II. 854.)
Another story of a seaman wrecked on the coast of Africa is among those collected by M. Marcel Devic. By a hut that stood in the middle of a field of rice and durra there was a trough. "A man came up leading a pair of oxen, laden with 12 skins of water, and emptied these into the trough. I drew near to drink, and found the trough to be polished like a steel blade, quite different from either glass or pottery. 'It is the hollow of a quill,' said the man. I would not believe a word of the sort, until, after rubbing it inside and outside, I found it to be transparent, and to retain the traces of the barbs." (Comptes Rendus, etc., ut supra; and Livre des Merveilles de L'Inde, p. 99.)
Fr. Jordanus also says: "In this India Tertia (Eastern Africa) are certain birds which are called Roc, so big that they easily carry an elephant up into the air. I have seen a certain person who said that he had seen one of those birds, one wing only of which stretched to a length of 80 palms" (p. 42).
The Japanese Encyclopaedia states that in the country of the Tsengsz' (Zinjis) in the South-West Ocean, there is a bird called pheng, which in its flight eclipses the sun. It can swallow a camel; and its quills are used for water-casks. This was probably got from the Arabs. (J. As., sèr. 2, tom. xii. 235-236.)

I should note that the Geog. Text in the first passage where the feathers are spoken of says: "e ce qe je en vi voz dirai en autre leu, por ce qe il convient ensi faire à nostre livre,"－"that which I have seen of them I will tell you elsewhere, as it suits the arrangement of our book." No such other detail is found in that text, but we have in Ramusio this passage about the quill brought to the Great Kaan, and I suspect that the phrase, "as I have heard," is an interpolation, and that Polo is here telling ce qe il en vit. What are we to make of the story? I have sometimes thought that possibly some vegetable production, such as a great frond of the Ravenala, may have been cooked to pass as a Rukh's quill. [See App. L.]

In M.N.Adler's footnotes to his 1907 translation of The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela (below) Adler points out that this might also apply to the stories of gryphons abducting men and taking them to their nests that Benjamin of Tudela reports.In fact, the Aepyornis was alive in historical times - perhaps as late as 1000AD. There were also large eagles in Northern Africa and Madagascar that were known to abduct large monkeys and other mammals: and the Stephanoaetus coronatus, or crowned eagle, still lives in Africa, but the Stephanoaetus mahery, the Madagascan variety, is extinct. Might an eagle not have existed, at a certain time, that could carry off a shorter, lighter man?

Adrienne
Mayor makes the point that the Scythians’ reconstruction of
gryphon appearance may well be superior to many 19th century fossil
reconstructions, perhaps because they were not working from
preconceptions.

She
also relates the Greek legends about one-eyed giants in the area to
Mammoth skeletons and shows how the ancients might have reconstructed
these also into something resembling a Cyclops with large facial
horns.

A problem with her argument, as to the gryphon representations being based on Scythian gryphons, is the early date of Egyptian gryphons, however. I believe they generally predate the Scythian tattoos...
Wouldn't it be nice to believe that Protoceratops
were still alive in the times when the Scythian nomads were
living in the area, and that these dinosaurs really were the gryphons
the Scythians tattoed on themselves, who guarded their hoards of
gold? Perhaps the Scythians fought the gryphons to steal their
gold, or perhaps the gryphons were simply protecting their young cubs
and families and thereby responded to human and equine presence in
the area with the kind of hostility animals often show when
threatened? There is, unfortunately, no evidence I am aware of that might indicate that this is true.

Then
again – at least one Roman writer hypothesized that the Scythians
made up the tales of the Protoceratops to keep people away from their
gold! This seems more plausible - using the stories of gryphons they had heard from the Greeks, and the fossilised bones in the area, they created a plausible story to keep people away.

Thoughts
on the word, Gryphon, Griffon, Griffin, γρύπας etc. etc.

Please
note that I use the spelling “gryphon” rather than “griffon”
or “griffin” here, because it is closer to γρύπας or γρύψ,
the Greek word for gryphon. The word “cherubim” in Hebrew may be
cognate with gryphon as well - another reason to use the ‘ph’
spelling, ‘b’ being closer to ‘p’ than ‘f’ - and there
are various variations on those same vowels, KRUPS, KRP etc in
Assyrian, Egyptian and other near Eastern languages. And in fact,
there are many words that appear that they might be cognate,
particularly in European languages - in English the words grip,
grasp, and grab all may have some relation to the idea of the gryphon
using its beak and talons, which in some of the accounts below are
very powerful tools. Perhaps this word has a very ancient etymology -
could even the Algonquian (North American Indian) word kaliboo, from which we get the word Caribou, be related? According to
Etymonline 41 it means ‘animal that scratches the snow’ - this idea
also seems not that distant from the idea of gripping something, seen in many European and near Eastern words related to 'gryphon'.

And that leads me to the question - could the word
‘gryphon’ go back to the very dawn of human civilization, in some
form, at least? Cherubim guarded the gate to the garden of Eden to prevent Adam and Eve returning, and whatever one might think of the historical truth of this legend, along with the other passages in Genesis, it certainly seems to hearken to some early mythology common to humanity, to say the least, many nations seem to have Adam and Eve stories, gods coming down to marry human women, flood stories... 42

Thence to cross over to the land of Zin (China) is a voyage of forty days. Zin is in the uttermost East, and some say that there is the Sea of Nikpa (Ning-po?), where the star Orion predominates and stormy winds prevail. At times the helmsman cannot govern his ship, as a fierce wind drives her into this Sea of Nikpa, where she cannot move from her place; and the crew have to remain where they are till their stores of food are exhausted and then they die. In this way many a ship has been lost, but men eventually discovered a device by which to escape from this evil place. The crew provide themselves with hides of oxen.
[p.95]
And when this evil wind blows which drives them into the Sea of Nikpa, they wrap themselves up in the skins, which they make waterproof, and, armed with knives, plunge into the sea. A great bird called the griffin spies them out, and in the belief that the sailor is an animal, the griffin seizes hold of him, brings him to dry land, and puts him down on a mountain or in a hollow in order to devour him. The man then quickly thrusts at the bird with a knife and slays him. Then the man issues forth from the skin and walks till he comes to an inhabited place. And in this manner many a man escapes[175].
[p.96]
Thence to Al-Gingaleh is a voyage of fifteen days, and about 1,000 Israelites dwell there. Thence by sea to Chulan is seven days; but no Jews live there. From there it is twelve days to Zebid, where there are a few Jews. From there it is eight days' journey to India which is on the mainland, called the land of Aden, and this is the Eden which is in Thelasar. The country is mountainous. There are many Israelites here, and they are not under the yoke of the Gentiles, but possess cities and castles on the summits of the mountains, from which they make descents into the plain-country called Lybia, which is a Christian Empire. These are the Lybians of the land of Lybia, with whom the Jews are at war. The Jews take spoil and booty and retreat to the mountains, and no man can prevail against them. Many of these Jews of the land of Aden come to Persia and Egypt.

[Footnote 175: Marco Polo has much to say about the bird "gryphon" when speaking of the sea-currents which drive ships from Malabar to Madagascar. He says, vol. II, book III, chap. 33: "It is for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size. It is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so killed him, the gryphon swoops down on him and eats him at leisure. The people of those isles call the bird 'Rukh.'" Yule has an interesting note (vol. II, p. 348) showing how old and widespread the fable of the Rukh was, and is of the opinion that the reason that the legend was localized in the direction of Madagascar was perhaps that some remains of the great fossil Aepyornis and its colossal eggs were found in that island. Professor Sayce states that the Rukh figures much - not only in Chinese folk-lore - but also in the old, Babylonian literature. The bird is of course familiar to readers of 'The Arabian Nights'.]

Gutenberg edition of The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela by 12th cent. Benjamin of Tudela Critical Text, Translation and Commentary by Marcus Nathan Adler
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14981

John
Mandeville’s Travelogue

From
this land men shall go to the land of Bachary, where are many wicked
men and fell. In this land are trees that bear wool, as it were of
sheep, of which they make clothes25.
In this land also are many hippopotamus’s, that dwell some time
upon land and some time on the water, and they are half man and half
horse. And they eat men wherever they can get them, no meat more
gladly. And in that land are many griffons, more than in any other
country. And some men say that they have the shape of an eagle in
front, and behind the shape of a lyon, and that is truly what they
say. Nevertheless the gryphon is greater and stronger than eight
lions of these countries, and greater and more stalwart than a
hundred eagles. For certainly he will fly bearing his nest, and with
a great horse and man on him as well, or two oxen yoked together, the
same as they are when they go out to the plough. For he has nails
upon his feet as great and as long as if they were oxen horns, but
they are wonderfully sharp. And of these nails men make cups to drink
out of, as we do of the horns of bulls; and of the backs of his
feathers (French version - and of her ribs and of the quills from the
feathers on her wings.)They make strong bows for to shoot with.

From
the land of Bachary men go many days journey to the land of Prester
John, the emperor of India; and his land is called the Isle of
Pentoxere.

Fra
þis land men sall ga to þe land of Bachary, whare er many wikked
men and fell. In þis land er treesse þat berez wolle, as it ware of
schepe, of whilke þai make clathe. In þis land also er many
ypotams, þat dwellez sun tyme apon land and sum tyme on þe water;
and þai er half man and halfe hors. And þai ete men whare so þai
may get þam, na mete gladlier. And in þat land er many griffouns,
ma þan in any cuntree elles. And sum [folio 111] men saise þat þai
hafe þe schappe of ane egle before, and behind þe schappe of a
lyoun; and sikerly þai say sothe. Neuerþeles þe griffoun es mare
and stranger þan viii. lyouns of þise cuntreez, and gretter and
stalworther þan a hundreth egles. For certaynely he will bere til
his nest fly and a grete hors and a man apon him, 2. [Cf. French
text, note 17; a gret hors ȝif he may fynde him at the poynt or ii.
oxen, etc., C.] or twa oxen ȝoked togyder, as þai ga sammen at þe
plogh. For he has nailes apon his fete als grete and als lang as þai
ware oxen hornes, bot þai er wonder scharpe. And of þase nailes men
makez coppez for to drink off, as we do of þe hornes of bugles; and
of þe bakkez of his fethers 3. [and of hire ribbes and of the pennes
of hire wenges, C.] þai make strang bowes for to schote with.

Fra
þe land of Bachary men gase many day iourneez to þe land of Prestre
Iohn, þat es emperour of Inde; and his land es called þe Ile of
Pentoxere.

The
Prose Life of Alexander is a medieval English version of an ancient
Greek text, Pseudo-Callisthenes’ Alexander. It is a very fanciful
account of Alexander the Great’s adventures. The titles in italics
are my interpolations. I have provided my ‘translated’ version,
followed by the Middle English original.

WATCH
OUT FOR THE GIANT CRABS.

From
there they removed and came to the great Sea Ocean. In that Sea they
saw an Isle, a little way from the land. And in that Isle they heard
men speaking Greek. And then Alexander commanded that some of his
knights should do off their clothes and swim over to the isle. And
they did so. And as soon as they came in the Sea there came great
crabs up out of the water and pulled them down to the ground and
drowned them.

A
GRYPHON-POWERED FLYING MACHINE

Then
they removed from there and they went away inland (from) the Seaside
toward the solstice of winter, travelling 10 days. And at the last
they came to a reed Sea, and there they rested. There was, fast by, a
Mountain, wondrously high, one that Alexander went up. And when he
was about on the peak, far-off, he thought he was nearer the
Firmament than the earth; then he imagined in his heart such a craft,
how he might make a gryphon bear him up into the air. And anon he
came down of the Mountain and caused to come before him his Master
wrights and commanded them that they should make him a chair and
furnish it with bars of iron, one each side the same, so that he
might safely sit therein. And then he caused them to bring four
gryphons and tied them fast with Iron chains unto the chair, and in
the greater part of the chair he caused them to put meat for the
gryphons. And then he went and set himself in the chair. And anon the
gryphons bore him up in the air so high that Alexander thought that
the earth was no more than a floor where men thresh the corn, and the
sea like a dragon about the earth. Then suddenly a special virtue of
God unwrapped the gryphons that caused them to descend down to the
earth into a field: ten day’s journey from the East, and he had not
been hurt nor shaved (harmed) in the chair. But with great distress
at the last he came to his East.

A
SUBMARINE

After
this Alexander imagined in his heart that he would know the secrets
that are in the Sea. And anon he caused to come before him all the
Master glassers that were in the East, and commanded them to make him
a great ton of surpassingly clear glass that he might through it
clearly see all manner of thing that were outside of it. And where it
was made he caused them to fasten it all about outside with bars of
iron and fasten there-to long chains of iron, and caused a certain of
the strongest and most trusty knights that belonged to him, to hold
the chains. And there he went into the town and caused a big whale to
enter where he went in, and there let it dive into the Sea. And there
he saw diverse shapes of fishes of diverse colours; and some he saw
that had the shape of diverse beasts there on the land, going around
on feet as beasts do here, and he ate fruit of trees that grow on the
Sea-ground. Their beasts came to him. But anon as they saw him
through the glass they fled from him. He saw there also many other
miraculous things, but after a while he stayed there no more because
men would not have believed them if he had told them, and at a
certain hour those that he had assigned (the task) before, his
knights, drew him out of the sea.

From
them the removed following the banks of the Reed Sea, and stayed
there in a place, where there were wild Beasts that had on there
heads horns like unto saws, and they were as sharp as swords. And
with their horns they slew and hurt many knights of Alexander’s,
and clove their shields asunders. Nevertheless Alexander’s knights
slew four hundred and fifty one of them. And from there they removed
and came into wilderness.

These
things are foul which you should not eat, and should be eschewed of
you: an eagle and all gryphons, aliete [aliete, that is, a
kind of eagle], and a kite, and a vulture by his kind, and all of:
raven’s-kind, by his likeness, a starling and night-crow, a lark,
and hawk by his kind; an owl, and dippere, and ibis. [ibis, that is,
a cicony that eats toads and serpents.]

Leviticus
Chapter 11, verse 13-15

These
thingis ben of foulis whiche ȝe schulen not ete, and schulen be
eschewid of ȝou; an egle, and a grippe, aliete. [aliete, that is, a
kynde of egle. ], and a kyte, and a vultur by his kynde; and al of
rauyns kynde bi his licnesse; a strucioun, and a nyȝt crowe, a
lare, and an hauke bi his kinde; an owle, and dippere, and ibis*.
[ibis, that is, a ciconye, that etith paddokis and serpentis.

Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross. Nor was his eare less peal'd
With noises loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with small) then when Bellona storms,
With all her battering Engines bent to rase
Som Capital City, or less then if this frame
Of Heav'n were falling, and these Elements
In mutinie had from her Axle torn
The stedfast Earth. At last his Sail-broad Vannes
He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoak
Uplifted spurns the ground, thence many a League
As in a cloudy Chair ascending rides
Audacious, but that seat soon failing, meets
A vast vacuitie: all unawares
Fluttring his pennons vain plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fadom deep, and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The strong rebuff of som tumultuous cloud
Instinct with Fire and Nitre hurried him
As many miles aloft: that furie stay'd,
Quencht in a Boggie Syrtis, neither Sea,
Nor good dry Land: nigh founderd on he fares,
Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,
Half flying; behoves him now both Oare and Saile.
As when a Gryfon through the Wilderness
With winged course ore Hill or moarie Dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stelth
Had from his wakeful custody purloind
The guarded Gold: So eagerly the fiend
Ore bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And swims or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flyes:

In
‘The Ancient History of the Near East,’ a classic tome
summarising knowledge of the near east at the beginning of the
twentieth century, James Henry Breasted claimed that the idea of the
gryphon travelled from Persia and the Semitic countries to Egypt, and
thence also to Greece. It was noted at the time that, in fact,
gryphons were first represented in Ancient Egypt26,
and subsequent research seems to bear that out.

So
we will start with Egypt in our summary of Gryphons in the Ancient
Near East.

Gryphons
in Ancient Egypt & Sefer/Seref - an Egyptian word meaning
‘gryphon’, and its relationship to a Hebrew word, Seraphim...

This gryphon from escavations at Lisht, is from Amenemhat I's tomb. Dated at around 2000 BC, the representations of gryphons here predate the Near-Eastern gryphon representations.

Another
gryphon from the back of an ivory magical wand from excavations at
Lisht, from the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1920-21,
fig 17.

At
Beni-Hasan tomb number 15 (XI dynasty, it is the tomb of Baqet III,
around 2000 BC again) there is also the following representation
of a gryphon, along with several other marvellous creatures;
something resembling a unicorn or rhinoceros, a long-necked creature
that resembled a brachiosaurus, and another whimsical looking
creature that might be some sort of dog:

From
the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Egyptian
Expedition 1931-32. Figure 8. (From the tomb of Baqet III, tomb
number 15 at Beni-Hasan.)

The
animals in this picture are labelled in hieroglyphic writing - the
gryphon has the following hieroglyphs above it27:

The
hieroglyphic alphabet, like many ancient Semitic languages, did not
include vowels. These three are the letters for s,
f, and
r.
Sefer – or
perhaps seref,
is one of the egyptian words meaning ‘gryphon.’ This word is
possibly cognate with the Hebrew word seraph.
Here
is the section from Isaiah that refers to seraphs, in the WEB Bible
translation, Isaiah 6:2-6.

Above
him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered
his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. One called
to another, and said,

“Holy,
holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies!

The
whole earth is full of his glory!”

The
foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called,
and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me! For I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a
people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of
Armies!”

Then
one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which
he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. He touched my mouth
with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your
iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”

Various
sources seem to disagree about the correct translation for seraph,
but the Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew lexicon28,
one of the authorities for Biblical Hebrew, says in one place that it
comes from the verb to fly:

The
reference to a ‘flying fiery serpent’ in the BDB lexicon is to
Isaiah 30:6:

The
burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and
anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and
fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of
young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a
people that shall not profit them.

Papyrus
Raifet (Louvre) and Papyrus Sallier III (British Museum29
BS.10181) contain a poem about the ‘victory’ of Ramses III over
the Hittites. There is a reference to a gryphon in the poem, ꜥḫḫ,
‘ekhekh30.
The ꜥ is a gutteral letter, a ‘voiced pharyngeal fricative’,
and is pronounced the same as the hebrew ayin/arabic ayn.

Here
is an outline of the pictures on the Ahmose Axe. Was this the axe of
Moses, the biblical figure? It shows a more important person
attacking a less important person on one side - Moses killed an
Egyptian and was forced to flee into the desert, on the other side of
the staff is a picture of someone carries two snake-like staffs.
There are strange parallels too, between the life of Ahmose and Moses
- Ahmose spent time in Palestine, and rid Egypt of the Hyksos. Could
the reported life of Ahmoses be a sanitised, propagandised version of
the truth to keep the Egyptian masses in check?

A
Syrian Gryphon - Beatrice Teissier

Beatrice
Teissier collected a large number of images of cylinder seals showing
gryphons in several books that she wrote.

Here
is a picture of a Syrian gryphon from 1850-1720 BC, with men standing
before it, perhaps kissing the palms of their hands. This is one of
the more lifelike Syrian representations of gryphons.

Syrian
cylinder seal

(Teissier
1985 Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals number 554)

Old
Babylonian Gryphon

This
is a sketch of part of a Babylonian cylinder seal from 1850-1700 BC.
It is a rather gruesome representation of a gryphon attacking an
antelope and a lion attacking a man.

What
Were The Neshar, the Peres and the Ozniyah? And Don’t Forget the
Four-Footed Winged Fowl?

In
the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, begun
about 323 B.C., around the time of the death of Alexander the great,
and completed by 123 B.C., there are two passages in the Torah, the
first five books of the Bible, in which a Hebrew word פֶּרֶס
Peres
was translated with the Greek word for gryphon, γρυψ, grups.

It
is to be noted that, whereas the Septuagint translation was once
considered less authoritative than the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the
Dead Sea scrolls have confirmed it as an excellent translation, which
reflects earlier versions of the Hebrew text than the Masoretic Text
in some places.

So
there is an argument for translating the Hebrew word פֶּרֶס
Peres,
as gryphon or griffon in English - but on the other side of the
argument is the obvious question, does the gryphon really exist? The
fact is that Peres was translated γρυψ, grups at a
time when the Greek translator obviously believed that gryphons did
exist. But if you assume that the gryphon does not (and did
not) exist, then it would seem more logical and reasonable to
assume that, based on context, Peres is another kind of eagle
or vulture.

And
gryps must have seemed a logical translation of Peres to
the ancient Greek speaking Jews who translated the Hebrew Bible into
the Septuagint, considering the logical association of Peres with
Paras, which means Persia or Persian, the preponderance of
representations of gryphons in Persian art, and the meaning of the
possibly related word param, to rend or tear - and as we have
seen, gryphons’ beaks and talons were believed to be powerful tools
for rending or tearing.

Here
as in so many arguments involving people’s interpretations of the
Bible, a person’s prior assumptions will virtually determine what
they think. Of course, the existence or otherwise of gryphons is
hardly an important issue in Biblical interpretation! But if you
believe that gryphons might have existed then you would be
open to the idea that Peres could mean gryphon. On the other side of the argument, however, is the fact that the earliest Persian representations seem to date from the Achaemenid Empire, the empire founded by Cyrus the Persian, which dates from 550BC. The laws in the book of Deuteronomy almost certainly date from earlier than that - thus making it less likely that Peres means gryphon. (Certain scholars seem to think Deuteronomy and Leviticus were collated upon the return from Babylon - i.e. the time of Cyrus - but this collating does not seem to have included changing words whose meaning was unclear.) Of course, there is this possibility - I wonder if anyone has considered it - the possibility that the Persians might have named themselves after the gryphon?....

(Translation)
These you are to detest from among the birds–they must not be
eaten, because they are detestable: the neshar, the peres,
the ozniyah

The
exact species of each of these birds seems to be unknown, perhaps
with the exception of neshar, which is usually identified as
eagle, although it has been claimed that eagles and vultures were
considered to be the same bird, essentially. In fact over the years
since the Bible began to be rendered into English all three, the
neshare, the peres, and the ozniyah have all
been identified with various birds of prey; various kinds of
vultures, eagles, buzzards, and sea-eagles.

Neshar
is probably eagle

Peres
has been identified with the gryphon, perhaps because the related
word paras means Persian, Persia (because of the preponderance of
representations of gryphons in Persia) and also another possibly
related word param means to rend, tear.

Ozniyah
is unclear - but was rendered in Greek as sea-eagle or osprey.

The
first complete translation of the Bible, the Wycliffe translation,
continued to translate ‘Peres’ as gryphon (grippe)
however, all the subsequent english translations used other bird
names for the three birds mentioned.

Leviticus
11:13 - Early English translations

Wycliffe
Translation (1382-1395) The first complete English language
translation: These thingis ben of foulis whiche ȝe schulen not
ete, and schulen be eschewid of ȝou; an egle, and a grippe, aliete.

(These
kinds of fowl which you should not eat, and should be eschewed by
you: an eagle, and a gryphon, and the aliete. )

Tyndale
Bible (Pentateuch 1530)

These
are the foules which ye shall abhorre and which shall not be eaten,
for they are an abhominacion. The egle, the gooshauke, the
cormoraunte.

Miles
Coverdale Bible (1535)

And
these shal ye abhorre amonge ye foules, so that ye eate them not: The
Aegle, the Goshauke, the Cormoraunte,

The
Bishop's Bible (1568)

These
are they whiche ye shall abhorre among the foules, and that ought not
to be eaten, for they are an abhomination: The Egle, the Goshauke,
and the Ospray,

Douay
Rheims Translation (a translation of the Latin Vulgate commissioned
by the Catholic Church) (1582-1610): All
birds that are clean you shall eat. The unclean eat not: to wit, the
eagle, and the grype, and the osprey,

Geneva
Bible (1587)

These
shal ye haue also in abomination among the foules, they shal not be
eaten: for they are an abomination, the egle, and the goshauke, and
the osprey

King
James Bible (1611)

And
these are they which ye shall haue in abomination among the foules,
they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: The Eagle, and the
Ossifrage, and the Ospray,

So
What Are These Birds? What do the Modern Translations say?

Modern
translations seem no less confused as to the birds indicated in this
passage, although they are certain it does not mean gryphon. Eagle
for Neshar is fairly unanimous, although the New Living
Translation translates Neshar as griffon vulture! However,
Ozniyah could be black vulture, osprey, sea-eagle, or buzzard,
and it’s anyone’s guess what Peres is....

but
these are they of which ye maye not eate: the egle, the goshauke, the
cormerant

Miles
Coverdale Bible (1535)

Eate
of all cleane foules.

But
these are they, wherof ye shal not eate: The Aegle, ye Goshauke, the
Cormoraunte,

The
Bishop's Bible (1568)

Of
all cleane byrdes ye shall eate. But these are they of whiche ye
shall not eate: the Egle, the Goshauke, and the Ospray.

Douay
Rheims (1582-1610)

The
unclean eat not: to wit, the eagle, and the grype, and the osprey

Geneva
Bible (1587)

Of
all cleane birdes ye shall eate: But these are they, whereof ye shall
not eate: the egle, nor the goshawke, nor the osprey,

King
James Version (1611)

Of
all cleane birds ye shall eate. But these are they of which ye shall
not eat: the Eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

So
Could It Be A Gryphon?

I
won’t include all the modern translations for this passage, as they
are along the same lines as the passage from Leviticus.

As
it really is anybody’s guess what these birds are, could the Peres
really have been a gryphon? Who knows....

Another
gryphon from one of my books - ink and chalks (oil pastels)....See below Rights to reuse this image click here

Another
Puzzling Section: Fowls That Creep On All Fours...!

In
the King James Bible we also find this puzzling verse, which, to
those in the seventeenth century and later, seemed to refer to
gryphons:

Leviticus
11:20

All
foules that creepe, going vpon all foure, shal be an abomination vnto
you.

So
what on earth are fowls that creep? Seems to apply to gryphons, if
gryphons are indeed birds (as they are usually identified in ancient
Greek texts!) At first sight this verse could hardly apply to
insects, since they have six legs, and it could not apply to
vultures, or any other type of bird, that have two legs.

Douay
Rheims Bible

Of
things that fly, whatsoever goeth upon four feet, shall be abominable
to you.

Wycliffe
Translation (1382-1395)

And
al that crepith, and hath fynnes, shal be vnclene, and not ben eten.

Fynnes?

Here
is the Hebrew:

כֹּל
שֶׁ֣רֶץ הָע֔וֹף הַהֹלֵ֖ךְ עַל־אַרְבַּ֑ע
שֶׁ֥קֶץ ה֖וּא לָכֶֽם׃ ס

All
the swarming birds that walk upon four, they are detestable to you.

And
all the winged beasts that go about upon four, they are detestable to
you.

I
am certain the person who translated the Hebrew into Greek was
thinking of the gryphon here - he even seems to missed out the
‘swarming’ part! To me that casts some doubt upon the accuracy of
his translation.

Here
is the lexicon entry from Liddel Scott for ἑρπετα, erpeta,
beasts:

I
think the person who translated the verse could certainly have been
thinking of gryphons when he did the translation - though that
certainly doesn’t mean that the original Hebrew was intended to
refer to gryphons.

Of
course there are two other alternatives - bats is one of them. Bats
use their wings as feet sometimes and certainly swarm.

And
then there are pterodactyls!

Pterodactyls,
Ropen and Seraphim...???

Referring
again to the verse from Isaiah mentioned earlier:

The
burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and
anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and
fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of
young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a
people that shall not profit them. (Isaiah 30:6, WEB Bible)

וְשָׂרָ֣ף
מְעוֹפֵ֔ף fiery
flying serpent

Could
the saraph (serpent) meof-ef, which means fiery flying
serpent, be the pterodactyl? Did pterodactyls survive, even
into the modern era? (A subject I will not explore in depth now, but up until the thirteenth century there have been European reports and representations of two-legged dragons which resemble Pterodactyls in many respects.)

Reports
of nocturnal, bioluminescent flying creature, called the Ropen, have
surfaced in Papua New Guinea and are being investigated by
cryptozoologists. Locals who have seen the creature consistently
chose pictures of pterodactyls when given a variety of creatures to
choose from. (I wonder if the cryptozoologists asked them if they had
seen Jurassic Park?) Pterodactyls, like bats, have four claws, if you
include the two claws on the elbows of their wings.

What
are the Cherubim?

Many
scholars have seen the word gryphon as
possibly derived from the word cherubim, or
some Near Eastern variation on it.

Before
we tackle that question we will ask the question, what are the
cherubim? It is a
plural Hebrew word, and the singular is כְּרוּב
kerub.

1.
the living chariot of the theophanic God; possibly identified with
the storm-wind.

2.
as the guards of the garden of Eden.

3.
as the throne of Yahweh Sabaoth, in phrase ישֵׁב
הַכְּרוּבִים(צְבָאוֹת)
’י
Yahweh
Sabaoth throned on the cherubim; the context shews that the cherubim
of the ark of the covenant are referred to.

4. a.
two cherubim of solid gold upon the slab of gold of the כַּפֹּרֶת
facing
each other with wings outstretched above, so as to constitute a basis
or throne on which the glory of Yahweh appeared, and from whence He
spake;

b.
numerous cherubim woven into the texture of the inner curtains of the
tabernacle and the veils.

5.
the cherubim of the temple:

a.
two gigantic images of olive wood plated with gold, ten cubits high,
standing in the דְּבִיר
facing
the door, whose wings, five cubits each, extended, two of them
meeting in the middle of the room to constitute the throne, two of
them extending to the walls; the chariot of Yahweh;

b.
images of cherubim were carved on the gold plated cedar planks which
constituted the inner walls of the temple, and upon the olive wood
doors; and on the bases of the portable lavers, interchanging with
lions and oxen; woven in the veil of the דְּבִיר.

6. a.
as four living creatures, each with four faces, lion, ox, eagle, and
man, having the figure and hands of men, and the feet of calves. Each
has four wings, two of which are stretched upward, meeting above and
sustaining the throne of Yahweh; two of them stretched downwards so
as to cover the creatures themselves. The cherubim never turn but go
straight forward, as do the wheels of the cherubic chariot, and they
are full of eyes and are like burning coals of fire; the king of Tyre
is scornfully compared with one of these, and is assigned a residence
in Eden and the mountain of God;

the
inner walls of the temple as carved with alternating palm trees and
cherubim, each with two faces, the lion looking on one side, the man
on the other. It is evident that the number and the form of the
cherubim vary in the representations.

Cherubim
put on guard to stop people getting back into the Garden of Eden.

Genesis
3:22-24

Yahweh
God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good
and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree
of life, and eat, and live forever...” Therefore Yahweh God sent
him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was
taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim* at the east
of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to
guard the way to the tree of life.

You
shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the
two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at the one end, and one
cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends
of one piece with the mercy seat. The cherubim shall spread out
their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with
their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be
toward the mercy seat.

Exodus
37:7-9

He
made two cherubim of gold. He made them of beaten work them, at the
two ends of the mercy seat; one cherub at the one end, and one
cherub at the other end. He made the cherubim of one piece with the
mercy seat at its two ends. The cherubim spread out their wings on
high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces
toward one another. The faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy
seat.

God
speaks to people from the space above the mercy seat.

Exodus
25:22

There
I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat,
from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony,
all that I command you for the children of Israel.

(But
the people of Israel did not want God to speak to them because it was
too fearful an experience, so the task of listening to God speak was
given to Moses...)

Numbers
7:89

When
Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Yahweh, he heard
his voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the
ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim: and he spoke to
him.

The
tent curtains leading into the most holy place have cherubim
embroidered upon them.

Exodus
26:1

“Moreover
you shall make the tent with ten curtains; of fine twined linen, and
blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. The work of the
skillful workman you shall make them.

Exodus
26:31

“You
shall make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined
linen, with cherubim. The work of the skillful workman shall it be
made.

Exodus
36:8

All
the wise-hearted men among those who did the work made the tent with
ten curtains; of fine twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet, with
cherubim, the work of the skillful workman, they made them.

Exodus
36:35

He
made the veil of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen: with
cherubim. He made it the work of a skillful workman.

Solomon
put cherubim inside the temple, in the Holy of Holies where the Ark
of the Covenant was to be stored, and upon the doors the temple.

1Kings
6:27-29

He
set the cherubim within the inner house; and the wings of the
cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched
the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other
wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.
He overlaid the cherubim with gold. He carved all the walls of the
house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and
open flowers, inside and outside.

1Kings
6:32

So
he made two doors of olive-wood; and he carved on them carvings of
cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with
gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim, and on the palm trees.

1Kings
6:35

He
carved thereon cherubim and palm trees and open flowers; and he
overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work.

1Kings
7:29 and on the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen,
and cherubim; and on the ledges there was a pedestal above; and
beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.

1Kings
7:36

On
the plates of the stays of it, and on the panels of it, he engraved
cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with
wreaths round about.

They
put the Ark of the Covenant under Cherubim wings

1Kings
8:6-7

The
priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place,
into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the
wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their wings
over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the
poles of it above.

2Kings
19:15

Hezekiah
prayed before Yahweh, and said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sit
above the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the
kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

Here
is the description of the same thing from Chronicles.

2Chronicles
3:7

He
overlaid also the house, the beams, the thresholds, and the walls of
it, and the doors of it, with gold; and engraved cherubim on the
walls.

2Chronicles
3:10 -11

In
the most holy house he made two cherubim of image work; and they
overlaid them with gold. The wings of the cherubim were twenty
cubits long: the wing of the one cherub was five cubits, reaching to
the wall of the house; and the other wing was likewise five cubits,
reaching to the wing of the other cherub.

2Chronicles
3:13-14

The
wings of these cherubim spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and
they stood on their feet, and their faces were toward the house. He
made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and
worked cherubim thereon.

2Chronicles
5:7-8

The
priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place,
into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the
wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their wings
over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the
poles of it above.

In
heaven God sits above cherubim as well...

Psalm
80:1

Hear
us, Shepherd of Israel,

You
who lead Joseph like a flock,

You
who sit above the cherubim, shine forth.

Psalm
99:1

Yahweh
reigns! Let the peoples tremble.

He
sits enthroned among the cherubim.

Let
the earth be moved.

Isaiah
37:16

Yahweh
of hosts, the God of Israel, who sits above the cherubim, you are the
God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made
heaven and earth.

The
Vision of Ezekiel.

The
vision of Ezekiel is one of the most amazing, awe-inspiring visions in the Bible.

Ezekiel
sees a kind of hyper-gryphon in heaven: a four-faced cherubim, with
whirling wheels, lightning and thunder, a storm, and coals of fire.
Each of the faces symbolises an aspect of the power of God - the lion
is the king of the land animals, the eagle can fly the highest, the
man is the most intelligent, and the bull (or cherub) is the
strongest animal.

Ezekiel
1:1-28

Now
it happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth
day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar,
that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth
day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s
captivity, the word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel the priest,
the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar;
and the hand of Yahweh was there on him.

I
looked, and, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great
cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness round about it, and
out of the midst of it as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of
the fire. Out of the midst of it came the likeness of four living
creatures. This was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.
Everyone had four faces, and everyone of them had four wings. Their
feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole
of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass. They had
the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they
four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings were joined
one to another; they didn’t turn when they went; they went everyone
straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they had the
face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right
side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four
had also the face of an eagle. Their faces and their wings were
separate above; two wings of everyone were joined one to another, and
two covered their bodies. They went everyone straight forward: where
the spirit was to go, they went; they didn’t turn when they went.

As
for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like
burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches: the fire went
up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and
out of the fire went forth lightning. The living creatures ran and
returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

Now
as I saw the living creatures, behold, one wheel on the earth beside
the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it. The
appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and they
four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it
were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in their four
directions: they didn’t turn when they went. As for their rims,
they were high and dreadful; and they four had their rims full of
eyes round about.

When
the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the
living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were
lifted up. Wherever the spirit was to go, they went; there was the
spirit to go: and the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the
spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. When those went,
these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were
lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them: for
the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. Over the head
of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like the
awesome crystal to look on, stretched forth over their heads above.
Under the expanse were their wings straight, the one toward the
other: everyone had two which covered on this side, and every one had
two which covered on that side, their bodies. When they went, I
heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like
the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of a
host: when they stood, they let down their wings. There was a voice
above the expanse that was over their heads: when they stood, they
let down their wings. Above the expanse that was over their heads
was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphirea stone;
and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of
a man on it above. I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance
of fire within it round about, from the appearance of his loins and
upward; and from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw as it
were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness round about
him. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of
rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was
the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. When I saw it,
I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.

Ezekiel
10:1-20

Then
I looked, and see, in the expanse that was over the head of the
cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire a stone, as
the appearance of the likeness of a throne. He spoke to the man
clothed in linen, and said, Go in between the whirling wheels, even
under the cherub, and fill both your hands with coals of fire from
between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. He went in as I
watched. Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when
the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. The glory of
Yahweh mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of
the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was
full of the brightness of Yahweh’s glory. The sound of the wings
of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of
God Almighty when he speaks. It came to pass, when he commanded the
man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from between the whirling
wheels, from between the cherubim, that he went in, and stood beside
a wheel. 7The cherub stretched forth his hand from between the
cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took of it,
and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen, who took
it and went out. There appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s
hand under their wings. I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the
cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside
another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like a beryl
stone. As for their appearance, they four had one likeness, as if a
wheel have been within a wheel. Their whole body, and their backs,
and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes
round about, even the wheels that they four had. As for the wheels,
they were called in my hearing, the whirling wheels. Every one had
four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second
face was the face of a man, and the third face the face of a lion,
and the fourth the face of an eagle. The cherubim mounted up: this
is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar. When the
cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim
lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels also
didn’t turn from beside them. When they stood, these stood; and
when they mounted up, these mounted up with them: for the spirit of
the living creature was in them. The glory of Yahweh went forth from
over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. The
cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my
sight when they went forth, and the wheels beside them: and they
stood at the door of the east gate of Yahweh’s house; and the glory
of the God of Israel was over them above. This is the living
creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and
I knew that they were cherubim. Every one had four faces, and every
one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under
their wings.

Ezekiel
11:22

Then
did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels were beside
them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. The
glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the
mountain which is on the east side of the city.

A
vision of the new temple

Ezekiel
41:17-21

...to
the space above the door, even to the inner house, and outside, and
by all the wall round about inside and outside, by measure. It was
made with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub
and cherub, and every cherub had two faces; 19 so that there was the
face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a
young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. thus was it made
through all the house round about: from the ground to above the door
were cherubim and palm trees made: thus was the wall of the temple.
As for the temple, the door-posts were squared; and as for the face
of the sanctuary, the appearance of it was as the appearance of the
temple.

Ezekiel
41:24-26

The
doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves: two leaves for the
one door, and two leaves for the other. There were made on them, on
the doors of the temple, cherubim and palm trees, like as were made
on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the face of the
porch outside. There were closed windows and palm trees on the one
side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch: thus were the
side-chambers of the house, and the thresholds.

In
the New Testament:

Hebrews
9:4-5

...having
a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on
all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna,
Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and above
it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we
can’t now speak in detail.

Cherubim
- Cognate to Gryphon?

If
a word is cognate with another word, it means the two words
may well have a common heritage, and over time the sound and meaning
as changed to the other word, as languages evolve. The first
description of this tendency was Grimm’s law, named after Jacob
Grimm33,
who observed the following letter transformations:

hard
b -> b -> p -> f

hard
d -> d -> t -> th

hard
g -> g -> k -> x

etc...

Using
these rules, it is easy to see how gryphon, γρυπα (Greek,
grupa), Greif (German), and kerub (Hebrew) might well have evolved
from a single word.

Nonetheless,
if a group of words are cognate, it does not mean they necessarily
have the same meaning - in fact, hardly any two words in different
languages or stages of language have the same meaning, particularly
when you take into account the implied associations of a word as well
as the dictionary definition. C.S.Lewis in ‘Studies in Words’
makes this point repeatedly - chapter nine looks at the word ‘World’
in English, and the various meanings and transformations of meaning
throughout the history of the English language.

When
looking at the various words related to gryphon – the Akkadian
kuribu, the Hebrew kerub,
and onto gryphon, γρυπα
(Greek, grupa), Greif,
gryphon, griffin, griffoune
and griffon, we need to remember that these words have a history of
thousands of years of usage – it does not seem un-likely
that they might have changed meaning over the centuries.

Cherubim
may not be gryphons. But there is a decent argument that they were
closely related.

Here
is Professor Julius Wellhausen’s paragraph in his great work
Prologomena34in which he first raised the possibility that gryphon
might be cognate with kerub.

In
the first account we stand before the first beginnings of sober
reflection about nature, in the second we are on the ground of marvel
and myth. Where reflection found its materials we do not think of
asking; ordinary contemplation of things could furnish it. But the
materials for myth could not be derived from contemplation, at least
so far as regards the view of nature which is chiefly before us here;
they came from the many-coloured traditions of the old world of
Western Asia. Here we are in the enchanted garden of the ideas of
genuine antiquity; the fresh early smell of earth meets us on the
breeze. The Hebrews breathed the air which surrounded them; the
stories they told on the Jordan, of the land of Eden and the fall,
were told in the same way on the Euphrates and the Tigris, on the
Oxus and the Arius. The true land of the world, where dwells the
Deity, is Eden. It was not removed from the earth after the fall; it
is there still, else whence the need of cherubs to guard the access
to it? The rivers that proceed from it are real rivers, all well
known to the narrator, they and the countries they flow through and
the products that come from these countries. Three of them, the
Nile, the Euphrates, and the Tigris, are well known to us also; and
if we only knew how the narrator conceived their courses to lie, it
would be easy to determine the position of their common source and
the situation of Paradise. Other peoples of antiquity define the
situation of their holy land in a similar manner; the streams have
different names, but the thing is the same. The wonderful trees also
in the garden of Eden have many analogies even in the Germanic
mythology. The belief in the cherubs which guard Paradise is also
widely diffused. Krub is perhaps the same name, and certainly
represents the same idea, as Gryp in Greek, and Greif
in German. We find everywhere these beings wonderfully compounded
out of lion, eagle, and man. They are everywhere guardians of the
divine and sacred, and then also of gold and of treasures. The
ingredients of the story seem certainly to have parted with some of
their original colour under the influence of monotheism. The Hebrew
people no doubt had something more to tell about the tree of life
than now appears. It is said to have been in the midst of the
garden, and so it seems to have stood at the point whence the four
streams issued, at the fountain of life, which was so important to
the faith of the East, and which Alexander marched out to discover.
Paradise, moreover, was certainly not planted originally for man, it
was the dwelling of the Deity Himself. Traces of this may still be
recognised. Jehovah does not descend to it from heaven, but goes out
walking in the garden in the evening as if He were at home. The
garden of Deity is, however, on the whole somewhat naturalised. A
similar weakening down of the mythic element is apparent in the
matter of the serpent; it is not seen at once that the serpent is a
demon. Yet parting with these foreign elements has made the story no
poorer, and it has gained in noble simplicity. The mythic background
gives it a tremulous brightness: we feel that we are in the golden
age when heaven was still on earth; and yet unintelligible
enchantment is avoided, and the limit of a sober chiaroscuro is not
transgressed.

The
fabulous gryphon was known to the Greeks of ancient times, but the
word 'γρυψ' seems to have had a relatively late entrance: it is
found first in the Arimaspea of Aristeas, an epic that did not
originate until the second half of the sixth century (Helbig, Homer
Ep. 388). Yet Prellwitz presents the word 'γρυψ᾽ as coming from
᾽γριπος᾽ (bent), as the crooked beak or four claws after
which the bird was named36.
The derivation of 'γρυψ᾽ from hebrew cherub
is indeed rejected by Friedrich Delitzsch (Paradise 151), which makes
more reasonable the (derivation of the) Indo-European root grabh
"grip, grab": I think their opinion still stands. On the
exploitation of gold in northern Europe Herodotus says, in III:16:

But it is said that one-eyed
men called Arimaspians steal it from gryphons. But this I do not
trust: that one-eyed men could be born who have a nature that is
otherwise the same as other men! 37

Among
these 'one-eyed' I understand - pursuing a thought of Keller,
Volksetym. 190 – about the miners in the goldmines, mostly enslaved
by Phoenicians: these people contributed to the tradition of holding
a lantern at the front in order to illuminate the darkness. In
Aeschylus, Prom 803 ff, it says this:

Watch for Zeus’ sharp-beaked unbarking hounds!The
Arimaspians’ mounts, in the gold-drenched lands,Fenced in
on both sides by Pluto’s flowing pores.

And
in Genesis 3:24 it is reported of God - "East of the garden of
Eden the Cherub lives with his flaming sword flashing to and fro,
guarding the way to the tree of life.' Yes, the gryphon is a favorite
subject with the ancient Greek, and so also in Phoenician art, as
Furtwängler says in 'Broncefunde of Olympia', 49 - and he also
speaks there about the initial sound of the Greek word ('γρυψ'
instead of 'χρυψ') and 'γρυπος' as well as 'γυψ'
"vulture", are also treated.

These
two extremes of opinion seem to have survived until today – amongst
theologians and philologists the derivation of γρυψ grups from
כְּרוּב
kerub
or other related Semitic words seems to be more generally
accepted than amongst Classicists.

But
there is evidence that they are related: particularly in the function
of gryphons and cherubim in Near
Eastern and Greek mythology. It's clear when one looks at the
many examples of gryphons in Egyptian depictions, guarding tombs and
kings' thrones; the same is seen in many Near Eastern depictions of
gryphons. They are supernatural beings, guardians of the king39.
In Teissier's Ancient Near Easter Cylinder Seals, a good 7% of the
(mostly royal) seals contain depictions of gryphons. And as we have
seen, gryphons are shown as the chariots of the gods from the
earliest dramatic depiction in Aeschylus' play (Oceanus is a Titan,
in fact, but they were the fathers of the gods in Greek mythology)
right until the very last depiction, in Nonnus' Dionysia.

I
believe John Pairman Brown, in 'Israel and Hellas40'
puts the issue to rest.

We
saw that Yahweh rides on the cherub or cherubim; he also sits on them
(Ps. 80:2) This is explained by Ezekiel, who saw a sapphire throne
(Ez. 10,1) with wheels assigned to the four cherubim, and
self-propelled. It may be shown on a mysterious Palestinian coin...
of a god on a winged wheel. Thus the cherubim serve both as guardians
of the divinity and as means of his mobility. When sedentary the
complex becomes a simple throne, and whether in Canaan or Hellas the
creatures on the two sides are winged lions. Ahiram of Byblos on his
sarcophagus sits on one; the priest of Dionysus had a griffin throne
in the theatre of Athens. The throne-room of Cnossus has a griffin
mural. Hiram the bronzesmith of Tyre made ten four-wheeled lavers
with a frieze of lions, oxen and cherubim (I Reg 7.27-39); almost the
exact item comes from Enkomi on Cyprus, a bronze four-wheeled laver
with a fretwork frieze of “griffins”.

Perhaps
Ezekiel's bizarre vision of a hyper-gryphon, with four faces and six
wings, is a symbol of God being mightier than all the other gods –
not only is God omniscient, all-seeing, but even the cherubim that
are his throne look towards every cardinal point at once, North,
South, East, West. And even his throne is
a living, thinking being – or, really, a community of
living, thinking beings. Even the wheels on the chariot are
living things – and self-motivated – they whirl around on their
own.

But
I do not believe that the cherubim with their wings overshadowing the
Ark of the Covenant, and the ones in the Jewish temple, and on the
curtain of the temple, were hyper-gryphons such as Ezekiel describes.
I think that it is more likely that they were gryphons; half-lion, half-eagle, just as we see in throne rooms all over the Mediterranean. The alternative to this is that they were simply some kind of bird or other winged creature - but looking at the etymology of the word and the prevalence of the idea of gryphons and other hybrid creatures makes it seem more plausible that cherubim means gryphon, or at least something along the lines of a gryphon or sphinx.

Based
on A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, by F. Brown, S.
R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.
Digitized and abridged as a part of the Princeton Theological
Seminary Hebrew Lexicon Project under the direction of Dr. J. M.
Roberts. Used by permission.

Note
- apart from the section above attributed to Perseus Tufts, the Greek
text for these sections comes from A Fragment of the Arimaspea CM
Bowra, http://www.jstor.org/stable/636961Bowra's
article was also very helpful in making my translations. Again,
Perseus Tufts was a fantastic helper, too, for Greek lexicons.

Symbols of Royalty in Canaanite Art in the Second and Third Millenia BCE - In this article by Irit Ziffer, There are Gryphons pictured on Syrian cylinder seals. Irit
Ziffer is a curator at the Eretz Israel Museum. The article as a whole
is very interesting – as well as pictures of the gryphons, there
are pictures in the article of ‘fanciful animals’ that look like
Brachiosaurii, or some sort of long necked dinosaur, and various other strange creatures.
http://www.academy.ac.il/data/egeret/77/EgeretArticles/Ziffer%20English%201.pdf

Ancient
Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection: Beatrice
Teissier University of California Press 1985.

I
have made rough sketches of some of the seals from her collection –
under fair dealing I believe this will not infringe copyright as the
artwork on the seals is certainly out of copyright. I would encourage
anyone who is interested in Near Eastern gryphons to go and look at
the photographs of the originals. The book is out of print but
thanks to the generosity of the University of California Press it is
available online at this web address:

There
is no index in the book, so here is a brief list of the seals listed
containing images of gryphons, so that you can look them up yourself
if you want to. I would include images of them, but the University
(quite rightly) wants to charge a fee for using parts of the book
online:

A link to Robert Denethon's Blog about writing fantasy and steampunk with reference to griffins/gryphons/griffons, Deep Cogitations:

Links to books by Robert Denethon

Endnotes.

1
It is a wonderful phrase, and though it is probably the simplest,
most obvious translation of the Greek - (i.e. it comes from
Aeschyllus, really) - nonetheless it is not really my discovery; it
is very close to the suggested translation for the passage from the
entry for ψαίρω (ψαίρει) in the Liddel-Scott-Jones
lexicon.

2
Although that assessment might be questioned now, from what we know
of earlier Semitic royal records and Biblical texts such as the
books of Judges, Samuel and Kings, where source materials were quite
clearly consciously collated and woven together, with a view to
making a case for a particular point of view of history.

6
Black? This passage is hard to read in the scan. σήθει from εττημενος
sifted, from τταω (διατταω) instead of ταω/ ταως
a peacock. Or even something like, σωματοποιεω
μεγάλα ´ερυθρα...ζήθ.. I give them bodily existence in greater Erithrea, where they once lived; i.e. I think they lived in greater Erithrea.

7
Probably an abbreviation of Δυσευποριστοσ - hard to
procure. Or Γινε δυα πορις ός. Who when they give
birth hatch two (but this doesn't really fit)

8Pliny has previously
denominated the Scythians "Anthropophagi;" and in B. iv.
c. 26, and B. vi. c. 20, he employs the word as the proper name of
one of the Scythian tribes.—B. (Ed. note: this is a footnote from
the original text)

9There can be no
doubt, that cannibalism has existed at all times, and that it now
exists in some of the Asiatic and Polynesian islands; but we must
differ from Pliny in his opinion respecting the near connection
between human sacrifices and cannibalism; the first was strictly a
religious rite, the other was the result of very different causes;
perhaps, in some cases, the want of food; but, in most instances, a
much less pardonable motive.—B, Still, however, if nations go so
far as to sacrifice human beings, there is an equal chance that a
religious impulse may prompt them to taste the flesh; and when once
this has been done, there is no telling how soon it may be repeated,
and that too for the gratification of the palate. According to
Macrobius, human sacrifices were offered at Rome, down to the time
of Brutus, who, on the establishment of the Republic, abolished
them. We read, however, in other authorities, that in 116, B.C. ,
two Gauls, a male and a female, were sacrificed by the priests in
one of the streets of Rome, shortly after which such practices were
forbidden by the senate, except in those cases in which they had
been ordered by the Sibylline books. Still we read, in the time of
Augustus, of one hundred knights being sacrificed by his orders, at
Perusia, and of a similar immolation in the time of the emperor
Aurelian, A.D. 270. These, however, were all exceptional cases, and
do not imply a custom of offering human sacrifices. (Ed. note: this
is a footnote from the original text)

10Pliny, in describing
the Riphæan mountains, B. iv. c. 26, calls them "gelida
Aquilonis conceptacula," "the cold asylum of the northern
blasts;" but we do not find the cavern mentioned in this or any
other passage. The name here employed has been supposed to be
derived from the Greek words,γης κλειθρον, signifying the
limit or boundary of the earth.—B. "Specuque ejus dicto,"
most probably means "the place called its cave," and not
the "cave which I have described," as Dr. B. seems to have
thought. (Ed. note: this is a footnote from the original text)

11They are merely
enumerated among other tribes of Scythians, inhabiting the country
beyond the Palus Mæotis. See B. iv. c. 26, and B. vi. c. 19.—B.
(Ed. note: this is a footnote from the original text)

12The figures of the
Gryphons or Griffins are found not uncommonly on the friezes and
walls at Pompeii. In the East, where there were no safe places of
deposit for money, it was the custom to bury it in the earth; hence,
for the purpose of scaring depredators, the story was carefully
circulated that hidden treasures were guarded by serpents and
dragons. There can be little doubt that these stories, on arriving
in the western world, combined with the knowledge of the existence
of gold in the Uralian chain and other mountains of the East, gave
rise to the stories of the Griffins and the Arimaspi. It has been
suggested that the Arimaspi were no other than the modern Tsheremis,
who dwelt on the left bank of the Middle Volga, in the governments
of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov, not far from the gold districts of
the Uralian range.

(Ed.
note: this is a footnote from the original text)

13It has been
conjectured, that these fabulous tales of the combats of the
Arimaspi with the Griffins, were invented by the neighbouring tribes
of the Issedonæ or Essedones, who were anxious to throw a mystery
over the origin of the gold, that they might preserve the traffic in
their own hands. The Altai Mountains, in the north of Asia, contain
many gold mines, which are still worked, as well as traces of former
workings. The representation of an animal, somewhat similar to the
Griffin, has been found among the sculptures of Persepolis, and is
conceived to have had some allegorical allusion to the religion of
the ancient inhabitants of the place. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c.
27, gives an account of the Griffin, and its contests with the
Indians, for the gold, similar to that here given.—B. (Ed. note:
this is a footnote from the original text)

14We have an account of
the Arimaspi, and of Aristeas, in Herodotus, B. iv. cc. 13, 15, and
27. Most of the wonderful tales related in this Chapter may be found
in Aulus Gellius, B. ix. c. 4. We have an account, also, of the
Arimaspi in Solinus, very nearly in the words of Pliny. We have some
valuable remarks by Cuvier, on the account given by Pliny of the
Arimaspi and the Griffins, and on the source from which it appears
to have originated, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 16, and Ajasson, vol.
vi. pp. 164, 165.—B. (Ed. note: this is a footnote from the
original text)

15The modern Himalaya
range. (Ed. note: this is a footnote from the original text)

16Aulus Gellius relates
this, among other wonderful tales, which are contained in his
Chapter "On the Miraculous Wonders of Barbarous Nations,"
B. ix. c. 4. He cites, among his authorities, Aristeas and Isigonus,
whom he designates as "writers of no mean authority."—B.
(Ed. note: this is a footnote from the original text)

17One of the pleasures
promised to the Gothic warriors, in the paradise of Odin, was to
drink out of the skulls of their enemies.—B. (Ed. note: this is a
footnote from the original text)

18πυρσοῖς
Literally, the fires, might mean ‘the red’ - does
this mean the wing membranes are woven into the existing
red feathers on their breasts? For an alternative
explanation for this rather detailed description, consider the
Indian Red-headed vulture Sarcogyps
Calvus, an endangered species today, has a very red head
and neck even when a small, unfeathered chick, and these
can grow to quite a size - indeed, a vulture nearly brought down an
airplane recently. Perhaps this report of gryphons comes to
Philostratus via Apollonius, who inquired about gryphons in India
and was told about vultures?

19
A kind of pun in Greek - ἄλλο ἄλλῃ means something like
‘another thing and the other’. Are these monkeys or baboons of
some sort?

20
Murmeekas - gr. μύρμηκες - may mean ants, although this is
by no means certain.

22
Could this be the peacock, which does have very beautiful blue neck
feathers? Perhaps mistakenly confused with the gryphon.

23
χειρουργοῦντες literally grabbing like a hand,
meaning perhaps that the gryphon’s beak has quite a lot of
dexterity.

24
While this passage is my own translation, I was alerted to the
passage when reading an excellent, natural and quirky English
translation of selected passages from Aelian’s “On the Nature of
Animals” by Gregory McNamee. Unfortunately McNamee does not
include the chapter on the gryphon.

If you wish to use the public domain material please do. If you wish to use any of the material on my site with the exception of the images I drew (this and this) and the book covers and blog image these , please do so - all of the other material that is my own original work (including the translations) is offered for reuse, for free (except the images) providing the following condition is followed: I only ask that you acknowledge that it is my work with the following link and acknowledgement (or one clearly equivalent), clearly visible on the same page on your site:

Click here to get the first book in the Gryphonomicon Histories Series, a Feather on the Breath of Ellulianaen, for free from SmashwordsRobert Denethonis an author who lives in Western Australia. He has studied the Alexandrian dialect of Greek as part of a tertiary degree but does not count himself to be an expert. He has written four books about gryphons and is working on the fifth and sixth; they are now available - the "Gryphonomicon Gryphon Dragon Histories" and "Gryphonomicon Cryptogryph" (Submariners Map Imprint, an imprint of Submarine Media Pty Ltd , a publishing company based in Perth, Western Australia.)Return to top

A link to Robert Denethon's Blog about writing fantasy and steampunk with reference to griffins/gryphons/griffons,Deep Cogitations:

Links to books by Robert Denethon Also, click here to get the first book in the Gryphonomicon Histories Series, a Feather on the Breath of Ellulianaen, for free from Smashwords